


Red Strings of Fate

by Jimblejambles



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Jicheol are both blind dorks, Love Guru Woozi, M/M, Red String of Fate, Seungkwan is sassy as usual, Wonwoo is suffering, Woozi can see the Red Strings of Fate, Woozi is pretty much Cupid, mingyu is dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-14 03:02:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11774160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jimblejambles/pseuds/Jimblejambles
Summary: Jihoon can see the red strings of fate that bind people together for everyone. Sometimes the string is broken and turned black to represent the death of a soulmate. However, not everyone has a red string attached to them. This can mean one of 3 things: They're both asexual and aromantic, their soulmate has yet to be born or they are the one unfortunate enough to be Jihoon's soulmate. Jihoon's managed to assist most of his friends in finding their soulmates. He helped Mingyu find Wonwoo, Soonyoung find Seokmin, Seungkwan find Hansol, but when it comes to himself, he might need some assistance from Seungkwan.





	1. Jihoon and Seungcheol: It's Destiny

Jihoon couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment he fell in love with Seungcheol. He didn’t even begin to realise he had those feelings until someone pointed it out. Thank you, Seungkwan. He didn’t even realise that he was also capable of love like everybody else around him.

He could see them; the red strings of fate that tie people together by the pinkie. It was odd though because not everyone had a string attached to them or their string was black a dangled from their finger lifelessly. He learned quickly what the latter ment. The black represented the passing of your soulmate and it saddened him when two soulmates never met. Not that he cared too much. He hated love. He hated death more though. The missing string though had multiple solutions; they were both asexual and aromantic, their lover wasn’t born yet or they were the one unfortunate enough to be Jihoon’s soulmate.

Jihoon first met Seungcheol when he was 5. Jihoon’s parents owned a coffee shop and Seungcheol’s mother was unlucky enough to work there. Jihoon didn’t often leave the safe confinement of upstairs, but one time when he did, he met Seungcheol. Seungcheol had entered the shop with his father to meet Seungcheol’s mother at the end of her shift. They stayed for 9 minutes and 49 seconds, not that Jihoon was counting. During that time, Seungcheol made his presence known to Jihoon after Jihoon’s mother made a fuss of how big he’s gotten since she last saw him, which was probably the week prior, but she was weird and Jihoon didn’t understand her.

After the first meeting, Seungcheol’s visits became more frequent and Jihoon spent a little bit longer downstairs, usually colouring or reading. It wasn’t until their 3rd visit that Jihoon’s mother managed to formally introduce Seungcheol to Jihoon. The easiest way to put it is that it was awkward.

“Seungcheolie meet my little Jihoonie!” Jihoon’s mother slid an arm around Jihoon and pulled him into her side. It was an action that always made Jihoon tense, no matter how much he tried to convince himself that it was just his mother.

“Hi Jihoon!” Seungcheol beamed, letting off the image of a golden retriever. “I’m Seungcheol, but you can call me S.Coups!!” Seungcheol laughed. It was one of the stages he went through. This one was that he decided that cool nicknames were a must. He regrets it now. Jihoon has never let him live it down.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Jihoon replied in a quiet voice that lacked the emotion and enthusiasm which Seungcheol bore.

“I’m going to call you Woozi!” Seungcheol stated.

“Why?” Jihoon was the slightest bit flustered, having only really communicated with his family at this point in life.

“Because you look like you’d struggle to stand with those weak legs.” He responded, with more laughter. Jihoon threw all his crayons at him after that and Seungcheol ran away to the comfort of his father.

Seungcheol and Jihoon spoke more often after that. Their meetings became daily and sometimes Jihoon would take Seungcheol to his room and they would play together or Seungcheol would talk to him, mainly at him, for a few minutes before he had to go. The visits became longer as Seungcheol got older and got more independent. His parents had more faith in him as the cafe was only down the street from his house. The two eventually became the best of friends.

Jihoon told Seungcheol about his ability to see the red string of fate at the age of 10. Seungcheol was amazed and being the curious child he was, asked who his soulmate was. Jihoon responded with, “You don’t have a string.”

“What?!” Seungcheol was in shock, “What does that mean?!”

“It could mean multiple things.” Jihoon stated. “It could mean you are both asexual and aromantic. It could mean your soulmate isn’t born yet,” Jihoon hesitated, “Or, you could be the one who is unfortunate to be my soulmate.”

“What? So I could not have a soulmate? Or I could be 10 years older than mine? Isn’t that weird? I mean I don’t think we’re soulmates! We’re just the best of friends!” Seungcheol responded. Oh how wrong he could be.

Talks about soulmates and the red string of fate became more common after that and at the age of 12, Jihoon told Seungcheol about his parent’s situation.

“My mum and dad don’t really love each other.” Jihoon stated after a long period of silence had settled between the two. Jihoon’s parents weren’t home and the two boys were both just lying on Jihoon’s bed.

“What do you mean? Are they not soulmates?” Seungcheol looked at Jihoon and had to resist the urge to pinch his squishy cheeks. Now was not the right time.

“No. My dad’s soulmate must have passed away and I’ve never seen my mum’s soulmate, but I know they exist.” Jihoon still didn’t show any emotion on the outside, but Seungcheol knew that it affected Jihoon, even if he didn’t admit it. He slowly held Jihoon’s hand and squeezed it once. It was his way of reassuring Jihoon with the smallest amount of physical interaction possible.

“What do you think is going to happen?” Seungcheol tentatively asked.

“Maybe they’ll meet and I’ll end up with split parents or they’ll never meet and my parents may manage to stay together.” Jihoon shrugged it off as casually as possible.

They met. When Jihoon was 13 years old, his mother’s soulmate walked into the cafe and asked his father about job openings. Things were fine at first, but eventually, Jihoon began noticing the looks the two would share and the occasional moment of physical contact that they would exchange. It was then that the arguments began to start between his parents. At first it was just small disputes which would end with them glaring at each other before moving on, but inevitably, the arguments got longer and louder. Sometimes, Jihoon’s mother would leave the house after particularly rough arguments and would come back the next day with no explanation. Jihoon predicted that she was with her soulmate and he wasn’t wrong.

When Jihoon was 14, his parents finally had enough and they separated. Jihoon remembered sneaking out afterwards, at night, and ending up at Seungcheol and they had an impromptu sleepover. A few days later, Jihoon’s mother moved out to live with her soulmate. Jihoon visited her on the weekends for a while, but eventually he began to have other plans more often, as he and Seungcheol were beginning to make friends with other people.

It was around that time that Jihoon received his first confession and broke his first heart. It wasn’t intentional. He just saw the string on Soonyoung was attached to another guy, Seokmin. Those two wouldn’t get together until they were in their last year of highschool. He and Soonyoung still remained friends and after Soonyoung and Seokmin became a thing, Soonyoung became a friend he could confide in, when Seungcheol failed him.

Seungcheol didn’t have many relationships throughout highschool, but the ones he did lasted months, before the other would either meet their soulmate or realise they didn’t have those kind of feelings for him and decided they were better off as friends. Seungcheol never turned anyone down and he was never the one to initiate the breakup.

At the start of their last year at highschool, Jeonghan transferred to their school. Jihoon imagines, if Seungcheol and Jeonghan had never been a thing or if Jeonghan had transferred to their school a year earlier, that he would have gotten along with the long haired beauty.

Jeonghan began hanging out with Jihoon and his friends; Seungcheol, Soonyoung, Seokmin, Mingyu, Wonwoo and Seungkwan. Jihoon didn’t care. He was in his final year of highschool and he had other things to worry about. He was also struggling to choose between following his dream and becoming a composer or playing it safe and taking business, in the hopes of taking over his father’s cafe that he now part timed at.

3 weeks and 4 days after Seungcheol and Jeonghan had met, Jeonghan confessed and Seungcheol, being the gentleman he is, accepted. Jihoon didn’t care. Seungcheol wasn’t his. He could do what he wants. They hadn’t spoken about Jihoon’s ability since Jihoon’s parents divorced anyway so who was Jihoon to tell Seungcheol that Jeonghan belonged with Jisoo. He thought nothing of it.

“Hah?! Seungcheol’s spending time with Jeonghan again? When’s he going to pay attention to us?” Seungkwan whined. “Jihoon do something!”

“Why me?” Jihoon put his barely eaten sandwich down. For some reason, he hadn’t had an appetite recently. It might not help that he was scarred after he saw Jeonghan with his tongue down Seungcheol’s throat a few months ago, and then nearly every day after.

“Because you and Seungcheol are obviously made for each other!” Seungkwan stated, raising his pinkie, “The red strings of fate binds you!” Seungkwan didn’t know that Jihoon could see the strings; only Seungcheol did.

“Bullshit.” Jihoon stated. “The red strings of fate do not connect me and Seungcheol. Seungcheol belongs to someone else.” Jihoon just wished that someone would hurry up and be born.

“Jihoon, you’re always helping us find the love of our lives, when are you going to find yours!” Mingyu cut in. It’s true. Jihoon helped Mingyu meet Wonwoo and when the two were both being awkward about confessing, he may or may not have used Mingyu’s phone to tell Wonwoo that Mingyu loved him.

“It’s so obvious you like Seungcheol, Jihoon.” Soonyoung pointed out, “Whenever you tell us about what you’ve done recently, Seungcheol’s always there!”

“Because we’re best friends.” Jihoon remarked.

“Because you love each other.” Seungkwan corrected.

Jihoon refused to believe Seungkwan, but the words kept replaying in his mind. It was times like these he wished he could see his red string of fate. Later that night, Jihoon found himself at Seungcheol’s house like usual. It had been about a month since Seungcheol and him had properly spoken and a month since Jeonghan had started forcing himself onto Seungcheol every time they saw each other. Ok, maybe Jihoon is over exaggerating, but Seungcheol is his best friend. Seungkwan would argue that it’s because Jihoon is jealous. Since Jihoon had arrived, Seungcheol had spent the time staring at Jihoon as if he was a patient, until Jihoon finally had enough and asked him what was up.

“Have you been eating and sleeping properly?” Seungcheol asked.

“Yes, of course.” Jihoon lied. He had been forgetting meals due to locking himself in his mini studio to make songs whenever he wasn’t working, sometimes even forfeiting lunch to revise. He never ate breakfast so that was out of the question. There were times where by the time he realised what time it was, it was often too late to successfully fall asleep without oversleeping.

“Really?” Seungcheol wasn’t buying it, “You look thinner. You used to have chubby cheeks, but now it’s gone.” He paused. “I miss it. I wish I had squished them more when I had the chance.”

“I guess it must have been baby fat.” Jihoon shrugged it off with another lie, “Why did you invite me around anyway?”

Seungcheol sighed. “I want you to tell me if Jeonghan’s my soulmate or not.”

“He’s not.” Jihoon straight up answered. “Strings will only appear if your soulmate is suddenly born and Jeonghan isn’t a baby.”

“With the way he acts sometimes I think he is.” Seungcheol joked. “Damn. I really thought he was the one this time.” Seungcheol covered his face.

“As long as you stop him and Jisoo from meeting, it could work.” Jihoon suggested.

“I’m scared, Woozi.” Seungcheol admitted. “You tried your best to keep your parents together, but even she managed to find her soulmate.”

“I didn’t know who her soulmate was though. You know Jeonghan’s is Jisoo. All you have to do is make sure Jeonghan avoids Jisoo.” Jihoon tried his best to reassure Seungcheol, but while he was speaking all he could feel was this sharp tug in his chest. He sat up to try to remove the aching pain.

“Yeah… I guess.” Seungcheol muttered, before noticing Jihoon moving, “You ok?"

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jihoon rubbed his chest slightly, “My chest just hurts slightly.”

“Do you need anything? Do you think you’re catching a cold or something?” Seungcheol was quick to enter doting father mode.

“I’m fine. I might go home though. Have a early night, you know?” Jihoon forced a smile and for once Seungcheol didn’t notice that it was. It only worsened the pain in Jihoon’s chest.

“Ok. I’ll walk you home.” Seungcheol went to rise, but Jihoon stopped him.

“It’s fine. It’s only down the road anyway.” Jihoon strengthened the smile as much as possible, before he left for the short walk home. He wasn’t sure when the tears started falling, but no one noticed so it was fine and before long he was back in the safe confines of his studio. He didn’t know what he was composing, but it wasn’t like anyone would listen to it anyway. However, he couldn’t bring himself to start composing. The tears got stronger and he couldn’t stop trembling. His chest was burning, yet he wasn’t entirely sure why. It wasn’t bleeding or bruised. There wasn’t even a visible mark, so why couldn’t he stop crying?

Jisoo and Jeonghan meeting was inevitable,such is the fate of soulmates. From there, it was as if Jihoon was watching his early teens all over again. Within a few months, Jeonghan had lost interest in Seungcheol and they broke up. It was a lot calmer than Jihoon’s parents divorce had been and involved less arguing. Jihoon also seemed to feel slightly relieved after the two broke up, but he wasn’t sure why as for the first time, Seungcheol cried over a breakup. Despite what he was feeling, Jihoon still tried to comfort him, but Seungcheol didn't want his sympathy.

“Fuck off, Jihoon.” Seungcheol never called Jihoon by his real name; it was always Woozi, much to his dismay. He didn't like the nickname, but hearing Seungcheol call him Jihoon after all this time scared him. “What do you know? You’ve never been in love. You’re probably just ashamed that you don't have a red string on your finger.” Seungcheol ran off. Jihoon was in public so showing emotion and trembling was not an option, but he wished it was. He wished he could be mad, and if it was anyone else, he probably would have been, but he wasn't. He couldn't be mad at Seungcheol. It irritated him. He did what he usually did when him and Seungcheol aren't talking or when Seungcheol was too busy with Jeonghan, he went to Soonyoung.

"Jihoonie?" Soonyoung grabbed Jihoon's arms to stop Jihoon from colliding with him. Jihoon's arms were more tense than usual. "What's wrong?" Soonyoung inquired as he began leading Jihoon to the rooftop.

"I don't know." Jihoon bit his bottom lip. "Seungcheol yelled at me. He mocked me, but I still can't bring myself to be mad at him."

"That's love." Soonyoung explained.

"I don't love Seungcheol." Jihoon stated.

"Tell that to your heart, Jihoonie." Soonyoung responded. "Let's imagine that Mingyu and Wonwoo fought."

"I don't see how this is going to help." Jihoon groaned.

"Just listen to me!" Soonyoung whined. "So, Mingyu and Wonwoo had a fight. You, being the ray of sunshine you are, went to comfort Mingyu as he's your friend. Mingyu then turned to you and insulted you. What would you do?"

"I would beat him up." Jihoon raised an eyebrown. "Again, how is this meant to help?"

"Jihoon, why wouldn't you have done the same to Seungcheol?" Soonyoung quized.

"Because he's older than me?" Jihoon leaned back, not understanding.

"Wrong! The Jihoon I know doesn't care about ages and stuff! He never even calls me Soonyoung-hyung!" Soonyoung emphasised his point with a cross gesture using his arms. "Think again." After a few minutes, Jihoon realised what Soonyoung meant.

Seungcheol and Jihoon didn't talk much over the next through weeks. Even if Seungcheol wanted to talk to Jihoon, it was impossible to catch him as he was always busy. Exams went by all too quickly and soon everyone would be graduating. Jihoon had been offered a scholarship in Seoul and he was deciding between the scholarship and a nearby university. The next time Seungcheol and Jihoon had a decent conversation was at prom. The only reason they spoke was because all their friends had hooked up with each other and some were too young to attend anyway, Chan inclusive.

“How did your exams go?” Seungcheol broke the silence.

“Good. I got all A’s. You?” Jihoon managed to hold the conversation, but on the inside he was falling apart.

“A wide range. I did well on the subjects I needed anyway.” Seungcheol shrugged.

“I swear if you have failed Maths after all the trouble I went through tutoring you last year, I will whip your arse!” Jihoon grumbled, but they both found themselves laughing a minute later.

“I’m sorry. What I said was out of line. You were only trying to help. It's not my place to judge you even if you never find love.” Seungcheol apologised once they had calmed down.

“It’s ok. The truth is, Seungcheol, I already found love.” Jihoon smiled.

“What?! Who? Why didn't you tell me?” Seungcheol demanded.

“Well you were kind of busy with Jeonghan.” Jihoon pointed out.

“True, but who is it?” Seungcheol grabbed both of Jihoon’s hands.

“It’s you. It always has been.” Jihoon smiled and after a few seconds, Seungcheol realised. He paused for a minute, leaving both to stare at each other and take each other in, before Seungcheol closed the distance between them and their lips connected.

Seungcheol was the one who was unfortunate enough to be Jihoon’s soulmate and they wouldn't have it any other way.

A couple months later, Jihoon and Seungcheol moved into a dorm together in Seoul. Jihoon had been encouraged to take the scholarship when Seungcheol claimed he was already planning on going to that university. It made it easy for Seungcheol to make sure that Jihoon wasn’t overworking himself and was still eating all his meals, including breakfast and sleeping at a reasonable hour. It did help that Seungcheol was able to encourage Jihoon with kisses and hugs.

It was funny that all thirteen of them - Jihoon, Seungcheol, Jisoo, Jeonghan, Mingyu, Wonwoo, Junhui, Minghao, Seungkwan, Hansol, Soonyoung, Seokmin and Chan - eventually ended up in the same university. However, no one could complain, except Chan, who didn’t have a soulmate. He was more complaining that he was the ultimate third wheel though, not that he didn’t have a soulmate. He was asexual anyway.

“Yah! Seungcheol!” Jihoon yelled, his small feet could be heard padding towards Seungcheol’s desk, where Seungcheol was currently attempting to take a nap.

“What is it, Woozi?” Seungcheol slowly raised his head from the table, rubbing his eyes.

“Stop using all the toothpaste up!” Jihoon moaned, tossing the empty tube at him.

“But it’s so good…” Seungcheol whined in response, lifting up his arms to encourage Jihoon to come over, “And it makes my breath smell minty fresh.”

“I’ll give you that, but that doesn’t mean you can deny me the mintiness! I need to get rid of my morning breath and make sure my teeth are clean too!” Jihoon grumbled, but sat on Seungcheol’s lap anyway.

“Well, it’s a good thing I like sharing.” Seungcheol grinned, pulling Jihoon into a kiss. They stayed like that for a few moments, before Seungcheol started chuckling, “Your morning breath isn’t that bad.”

“Shut up.” Jihoon moved in for a second kiss. This one was shorter and Seungcheol moaned when it ended, “That’s all you get until you go and buy us some more toothpaste.”

“Fine, but I’ll hold you to that!” Seungcheol waited for Jihoon to get off of him, before heading towards the door. He slipped on his shoes and headed out to buy toothpaste. Once he was back, he forced Jihoon to pay up.

Everything was as it should be, until their 11 other friends decided to barge into their dorm of course, but Seungcheol should have remembered to lock it when he got home.


	2. Mingyu and Wonwoo: Cupid in Action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu is an idiot and Jihoon is 100% done.

Mingyu was one of Jihoon’s close friends and to put it simply, Mingyu was terrified of Jihoon. It was quite rational, considering what went down the first time they met.

“Hey, Seungcheol!” Mingyu waved, as he spotted Seungcheol enter the cantine with a certain pink haired boy, “Who’s this?” Mingyu had only met Seungcheol that morning, as it was Mingyu’s first day in highschool and Seungcheol was responsible for showing the freshman around. Mingyu didn’t miss the way, Jihoon’s eyes stared at his left hand, but he didn’t question it.

“This is my best friend, Woozi.” Seungcheol draped an arm over Jihoon, resting his head on Jihoon’s, which earned him an swollen foot from Jihoon, who, of course, stomped on Seungcheol’s foot to get him off.

“Ignore him.” Jihoon moved away from Seungcheol, “He’s just a nuisance. I’m Jihoon.” He stuck a hand towards Mingyu and gave him a small smile.

“So cute.” Mingyu was about to receive the handshake, when he heard a small tsk sound from Jihoon. The next minute, Jihoon was about a metre away from hitting Mingyu with a guitar and the giant was borderline tears in the corner. Thankfully, Seungcheol stopped Jihoon before anything bad happened. After that incident, Mingyu was a lot more careful around Jihoon and he seemed to have gained a fear of guitars and Jihoon. However, that did not stop Mingyu from becoming friends with Jihoon. Mingyu was lucky to have met Jihoon because a few months later, Jihoon assisted in Mingyu meeting Wonwoo. 

“Jihoon.” Mingyu whined, “Why do you always have to bully me?” He wasn’t expecting an answer because Jihoon would never admit that the reason was that Mingyu was irritatingly taller than him. Mingyu went to shuffle forward in the queue in the coffee.

“Fine, I’ll do some nice for once.” Jihoon stated, before promptly tripping Mingyu up. However, Mingyu was greeted with a softer landing than expected, when he realised that Jihoon, being the jerk he is, had tripped him into someone.

“Ow.” The guy moaned.

“I’m so sorry.” Mingyu went to move away and noticed that, not only had he been tripped into the guy, he had caused the guy to spill his drink over himself. He quickly got up and extended a hand to help the guy get up. “I’m so sorry. My friend tripped me up. He can be such a jerk sometimes.”

“It’s ok.” The guy accepted his offer and within a second, was also standing. “It’s only burning hot coffee.”

“Shit. I’m so sorry. Do you want to come to mine and we can clean you up? I don’t live that far away.” Mingyu grabbed a few tissues from a nearby table and desperately tried to get rid of some of the coffee on the other guy, “Do you also want another coffee? I can buy you one to apologise.”

“Isn’t that kind of creepy?” The guy laughed. “Offering to let a stranger go to your house? For all you know, I could be an axe murderer.” Mingyu suddenly realised what he had asked and began to stutter.

“It’s fine, Mingyu. Wonwoo is not an axe murderer.” Jihoon nudged the giant.

“Wait! You know him?” Mingyu gasped.

“Yeah. He’s in my English class.” Jihoon shrugged.

“So don’t worry. I know that Jihoon can be a jerk.” Wonwoo laughed and Mingyu swore that he could listen to that laugh forever, but then realised what he was swearing and started panicking. “And I would love if we went to your house so I could clean up because this is really beginning to burn.”

“Ah yeah! Let’s go.” Mingyu grabbed Wonwoo’s arm on instinct and began to lead him out of the coffee shop.

“You two go! I’ll buy us all coffee and then meet you guys.” Jihoon grinned at the closeness of the red string of fate binding Mingyu and Wonwoo.

“Ok.” Mingyu responded, before both him and Wonwoo disappeared out of the door. Once outside, Mingyu let go of Wonwoo’s hand. “Right! Let’s go!” Mingyu smiled, walking down the street. “I’m Mingyu by the way!”

“Wonwoo.” Wonwoo responded, following Mingyu down the street to Mingyu’s house. When they got there, Mingyu leant Wonwoo a towel and eventually ended up lending Wonwoo a shirt as well, allowing Wonwoo some privacy to change.

After the coffee incident, Wonwoo and Mingyu saw each other more often and ended up becoming close friends. Wonwoo quickly learnt about Mingyu’s extreme clumsiness and how Mingyu, Seungkwan, Seungcheol and Jihoon would pull faces at Soonyoung and Seokmin’s flirting, which was made even more annoying by the fact that they weren't an official couple even with all the hand holding, but at least, most of them thought it wouldn't be long until one of them finally confessed instead of beating around the bush. However, the others got even more frustrated by the fact that Mingyu and Wonwoo were taking their sweet time in realising that they were both desperately in love with each other and it was Wonwoo who stepped up and managed to start changing everything. It all happened in Mingyu's second year.

It was a regular school day, except today, Wonwoo had called Mingyu up to the rooftop. They hadn’t managed to sneak away unnoticed though and Seungcheol and Jihoon were hiding nearby. Seungcheol had asked why they had to watch and Jihoon had told him that he was researching. What was he researching? We’ll never know.

“So what do you need?” Mingyu asked, grinning like a child.

“Well,” Wonwoo was unable to meet Mingyu’s eyes. “We’ve been friends for a quite some time, but I was kind of hoping we could be more than that. You know?” Wonwoo glanced at Mingyu’s face.

“You want to be best friends?” Mingyu asked, “Sure.”

“No, something more than that. I like you a lot.” Wonwoo groaned slightly. How thickheaded could Mingyu be?

“Best friends forever?” Mingyu raised, “I mean, won’t Junhui be jealous? You’re pretty close with him afterall.”

Wonwoo sighed. “Yeah best friends forever. I’m sure Junhui won’t mind. He has a friend in China he talks to a lot.”

“Well, sure! I’ll be your best friend forever!” Mingyu beamed. “I can’t wait to tell Jihoon and the others!” Mingyu turned to the exit, “Come on! Let’s go eat lunch!”

“You go on ahead. I’ll catch up.” Wonwoo tried to smile.

“Ok! Don't be too long!” Mingyu disappeared down the stairs. Wonwoo stood staring at the door. Jihoon quickly popped out from his hiding spot, Seungcheol following.

“You guys were here the whole time?” Wonwoo’s gaze didn't move.

“Yeah.” Jihoon stated. “Mingyu can be a bit dense at times, but I'll talk to him after school. I won’t let you two down.”

“Thanks, Jihoon. I guess you're not always a jerk.” Wonwoo smiled slightly.

“Now, Seungcheol and I need to get to the cantine quickly to calm an excited Mingyu. Wait a couple minutes before following.”

“Mingyu.” Jihoon rolled his chair over to Mingyu and jabbed him in the stomach. “Are you an idiot?” It was the evening now and the two were at Mingyu’s house. Mingyu was lying on his bed with his legs off the side and Jihoon was on Mingyu’s computer chair.

“What?” Mingyu sat up, nearly headbutting Jihoon. “What have I done now?” He whined.

“You love Wonwoo, don't you?” Jihoon inquired

“Well, yeah.” Mingyu answered, before adding, “But he only wants to be best friends forever.”

“Really and did he ask exactly if you wanted to be his BFF?”

“No, but he asked if we wanted to be more than friends and then when I asked if he meant best friends, he said more than that and that he likes me a lot.”

“Don’t a lot of people on TV shows use the phrase I like you a lot to confess their love when they're to scared to directly tell the person they love them?”

“Well, yeah, but it can also be used between friends, like, I like you a lot, but that doesn't mean I love you.”

“He asked to be more than friends, implying he wants to be your boyfriend.” Jihoon deadpanned.

“Jihoon. Jihoon. Jihoon.” Mingyu started. “Shit.” He began to panic. “What do I do? Wonwoo just confessed to me and I friendzoned him!”

“Finally!” Jihoon cheered. “Just give me your phone.”

“What? Why?"

“Just give me your fucking phone, Mingyu.” Mingyu quickly handed Jihoon his phone. “Unlock it please.” He passed back the phone and Mingyu unlocked it before handing it back. 2 minutes later, Jihoon handed back the phone.

“What did you do?” Mingyu examined his phone.

“Just wait a minute.” Jihoon shuffled his chair closer to Mingyu and a minute later there was a ding coming from Mingyu’s phone. He unlocked it to see a message from Wonwoo. However, when checking the message, he noticed Jihoon had sent a message of his own.

** To Wonwoo: **

_ Hey, sorry I was being such an idiot earlier.  _

_ I understand what you were saying now and  _

_ I love you, as more than friends. _

** From Wonwoo: **

_ Shit? Do you mean that? Do you really  _

_ mean that? You’re not joking? _

“You better respond yes or I will beat you up.” Jihoon peered over Mingyu’s shoulder and Mingyu reluctantly responded.

** To Wonwoo: **

_ Yeah, I’m not joking. I mean you did mean  _

_ that earlier, right? You love me too, right? _

Nearly a millisecond later, Wonwoo responded.

** From Wonwoo: **

_ Yeah! I love you too! _

"I guess you're not always a jerk." Mingyu smiled at Jihoon.

The next day, Wonwoo and Mingyu attended school as lovers, not friends, and Jihoon had succeeded in matching up another couple. However, he wasn’t expecting Mingyu to return the favour. It’s not like there was much Mingyu could have done; Soonyoung was doing a pretty good job of helping Jihoon realise his feelings for Seungcheol on his own.

“Jihoonie?” Mingyu watched Soonyoung stop Jihoon from colliding with himself and quickly realised that something wasn’t right. Mingyu could only stare as Soonyoung quickly guided Jihoon away, leaving Mingyu with Wonwoo. He heard Soonyoung ask Jihoon “What’s wrong?” before disappearing down the hall.

However, Mingyu didn’t see Seungcheol and Jihoon speak much after that. Jihoon was always in the library or one of the music rooms revising or practising, so they didn’t seem him much. He always managed to avoid Seungcheol. He could only watch Seungcheol bite his lip every time Jihoon managed to successfully avoid him again. Sure, Seungcheol had crossed a line, but he was just upset and now all he can feel is the regret of his actions.

Mingyu managed to attend the prom as Wonwoo’s plus one. From there, he, Wonwoo, Jisoo, Jeonghan, Soonyoung and Seokmin, - Junhui couldn’t go because of family business, so he was back in China for a few days - executed a plan to make Seungcheol and Jihoon so awkward around them, that they would be forced to socialise. Their main method was to turn them into third wheels and sure enough, after about 10 minutes, the two could be found making awkward conversation, which slowly turned into a confession. Mingyu and Wonwoo could be found hiding nearby, watching the scene unfold.

“The truth is, Seungcheol, I already found love.” Jihoon smiled.

“What? Who? Why didn’t you tell me?” Seungcheol demanded.

“Well, you were kind of busy with Jeonghan.” Jihoon pointed out.

“True, but who is it?” Seungcheol grabbed both of Jihoon’s hands.

“It’s you. It always has been.” Jihoon smiled. Mingyu and Wonwoo couldn’t help, but gush at how Seungcheol face suddenly seemed to explode with realisation, before he tenderly kissed Jihoon. After that, Wonwoo and Mingyu went to sneak off to have their own fun, but it didn’t go unnoticed and a few minutes later, they both found themselves being scolded by Jihoon. Well, excuse them for helping!

Mingyu decided to transfer schools for his last year to a school in Seoul to be closer to Wonwoo. They both shared a small apartment, just off Wonwoo’s university. Mingyu joined him in that university the following year, studying home economics, while Wonwoo studied animal care. They were both happy, even if they both had to work part time to pay the rent. Wonwoo’s parents did also help with payment, as they were pretty well off.

“Mingyu,” Wonwoo slowly made his way into the kitchen, “What are you cooking?” His hair was tousled from having just woken up and he had to resist yawning every 3 seconds.

“Well, seeing as it’s our 3 year anniversary today, I was thinking pancakes and waffles would be appropriate.” Mingyu smiled, flipping a pancake, as Wonwoo’s arms slid their way around Mingyu’s waist. He rested his head on Mingyu’s shoulder, having to stand slightly on tip toes to reach.

“I was wondering why you were up so early for once.” Wonwoo joked. It’s true, Mingyu often repeatedly put his alarm on snooze, until Wonwoo eventually came in to assist the alarm clock in waking up Mingyu.

Mingyu pouted, “I am eggcellent at getting up on time.” He joked.

“That was a terrible pun, but seeing as it was cute hearing you try, I’ll let you off.” Wonwoo squeezed Mingyu’s waist slightly and Mingyu turned around planting a small kiss on Wonwoo’s cheek, before going back to the pancakes.. Of course, excellent comedian, Jeon Wonwoo, would make sure his boyfriend, Mingyu, wasn’t making a fool of himself because in Jihoon’s mind, one fool, Wonwoo, was enough.


	3. Soonyoung and Seokmin: The Trouble in the All Seeing Eye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soonyoung finds the sun in the form of a man known as Seokmin.

Soonyoung’s first proper meeting with Jihoon occurred in the cafe that Jihoon’s father owned. Jihoon was filling in for an employee that had called in sick, even though, in theory, he was too young to be working there, but it didn’t stop him, and he provided good service so why would anyone dob him in? At first, Soonyoung just saw him as the cute, little kid who wanted to be a good boy and help his father, but that all changed after Soonyoung made his order.

“A cappuccino scuro, please.” Soonyoung smiled, hoping the kid would understand him and knew what he was doing.

Without even looking at the pricelist, Jihoon responded, “Ok $2.88, please.” He put his hand out and after a moment, Soonyoung handed the boy the money, watching as the boy put it in the till, before he went to begin making the coffee. “To go or staying in?”

“To go.” Soonyoung assured, before watching Jihoon get to work. In a way, Jihoon’s coffee skills were an artform. If Soonyoung could, he would watch Jihoon make coffee all day, but he had a dance club to attend.

“Thank you,” Soonyoung beamed, as Jihoon handed him the warm ceramic cup. He took a sip, before turning towards the exit. Just as he was about to leave, he glanced back at the boy. He was already serving another customer.

Soonyoung attended the coffee shop more after that and eventually, began to talk to Jihoon at school as well. He wasn’t sure whether he mistook his feelings of friendship as feelings of love, but one day, Soonyoung confessed to Jihoon.

“Jihoon.” Soonyoung called out his name, even though the boy was right in front of him and they were alone. He just liked the way Jihoon rolled off of his tongue. “I think I love you.”

“You think you love me?” Jihoon questioned.

“Well, no. I love you, but all these feelings are just a bit new to me and I’ve never liked anyone this much before.” He scratched his head.

“Are you sure this is love? I mean, you’re a great friend, but we’re like brothers. We argue way too often to be in love with each other, besides you deserve someone who will be able to keep up with your endless enthusiasm and understand all of your jokes. Soonyoung, you deserve someone who you’ll be able to smile alongside and I won’t be able to do any of those things. I can’t make you happy.” Jihoon was trying to subtly tilt Soonyoung towards Seokmin, who he had noticed had a red string that seemed to connect rather comfortably to Soonyoung, but at the same time he did not want to lose a friend. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to lose you as a friend, but I’m not the one for you and I think deep down, we both know that.” Jihoon could feel himself tensing up, he just hoped that he wouldn’t cry while he was still in front of Soonyoung. Soonyoung was one of his closest friends after Seungcheol and he didn’t want to lose him. It hurt Jihoon to know that he had broken his first heart.

“It’s ok, Jihoon.” Soonyoung sniffled, “I understand.” It hurt Jihoon even more to watch Soonyoung walk away, crying. It’s times like these, Jihoon is usually forced to be a shoulder to cry on, but knowing that wouldn’t be happening only filled him with a slight twinge of guilt. Later when Seungcheol would ask why he turned Soonyoung down, he would tell Seungcheol, Soonyoung belonged with someone else.

Of course, broken hearts and friendships aren’t easy to fix and a few weeks later, Soonyoung was still avoiding Jihoon and Jihoon was still desperate to reclaim his friend, so he convinced Seungcheol to introduce Soonyoung to Seokmin. It helped that Seungcheol was in quite a few lessons with Seokmin and knew him quite well, due to both of their abilities to make friends quickly. The real question was why hadn’t Seokmin hung out with them sooner.

Soonyoung and Seokmin bonded pretty quickly and things became pretty noisy at their lunch table, much to Jihoon’s self proclaimed annoyance, but even he secretly enjoyed the company, even if he would never admit it. It was a few weeks later, Soonyoung started coming to Jihoon and Seungcheol for relationship advice. Originally, Soonyoung’s plan was to ask Seungcheol, but Jihoon had been pretty clingy to Seungcheol recently, probably because he saw it coming.

“He’s just got such a nice smile. Literally, every time he smiles, it’s like the universe lights up. He’s like the sun.” Soonyoung rolled around Jihoon’s bed, messing it up.

“You’ve already said that.” Jihoon sighed for about the 5th time. He pitied the guy who had to listen to Soonyoung blabber on about Jihoon, all those months ago. It was probably Seungcheol.

“Yeah, but you just don’t get it. He’s just so amazing and his voice is like an angel has descended.” Soonyoung continued. He was swinging his arms about, as if he hoped to make snow angels with Jihoon’s bed.

“If you like him so much, why don’t just confess?” Jihoon lightly kicked Soonyoung with his right foot.

“You don’t understand. It’s not easy to confess. I might get rejected again. He might not even like me in that way.” Soonyoung defended himself.

“Soonyoung, you’ve basically been eye fucking for the last few weeks. I’m pretty sure you two love each other.” Jihoon tried to ignore the guilt that returned when Soonyoung mentioned the word rejection.

However, despite the two doing nearly everything couple do, except kiss and have sex, Soonyoung didn’t confess until Valentine’s day of their third year, after he realised that if he didn’t take this opportunity, that Seokmin might be snatched from him, like Seungcheol had been from Jihoon, multiple times. He handed Seokmin the chocolate and simply stated, “They’re not friendship chocolate by the way.”

“Good.” Seokmin responded, laughing. He carefully shuffled forward and the two tentatively kissed, “Because mine isn’t either.” He pulled his own box of chocolates out of his bag and handed them to Soonyoung.

“Thank goodness. I was scared you were going to reject me.” Soonyoung whispered, while their foreheads were touching.

“Me too.” Seokmin laughed and Soonyoung enjoyed every wave of mint that swam over him, engulfing him, as they shared another kiss, before locking hands and walking home together.

A few weeks later, Soonyoung was caught off guard, when he ended up having to comfort Jihoon, after Seungcheol had snapped at Jihoon. Soonyoung had heard a few weeks ago from Seungcheol that it was Jihoon that tried to introduce him to Seokmin, after Soonyoung had gone to thank Seungcheol for introducing Seokmin to him, so he was desperate to try to repay Jihoon, even though Jihoon insisted it was him paying Soonyoung back after he rejected him 2 years ago.

"Jihoonie?" Soonyoung grabbed Jihoon's arms to stop Jihoon from colliding with him. Jihoon's arms were more tense than usual. "What's wrong?" Soonyoung inquired as he began leading Jihoon to the rooftop. He shot Mingyu one last look.

"I don't know." Jihoon bit his bottom lip. "Seungcheol yelled at me. He mocked me, but I still can't bring myself to be mad at him."

"That's love." Soonyoung explained. He thought that considering how often Jihoon assisted in getting couple together, Jihoon would be able to realise his own love.

"I don't love Seungcheol." Jihoon stated.

"Tell that to your heart, Jihoonie." Soonyoung responded. "Let's imagine that Mingyu and Wonwoo fought." He had to remind himself that if he hit Jihoon, he would probably not live to see tomorrow.

"I don't see how this is going to help." Jihoon groaned.

"Just listen to me!" Soonyoung whined. "So, Mingyu and Wonwoo had a fight. You, being the ray of sunshine you are, went to comfort Mingyu as he's your friend. Mingyu then turned to you and insulted you. What would you do?"

"I would beat him up." Jihoon raised an eyebrown. "Again, how is this meant to help?"

"Jihoon, why wouldn't you have done the same to Seungcheol?" Soonyoung quized.

"Because he's older than me?" Jihoon leaned back, not understanding.

"Wrong! The Jihoon I know doesn't care about ages and stuff! He never even calls me Soonyoung-hyung!" Soonyoung emphasised his point with a cross gesture using his arms. "Think again." After a few minutes, Jihoon realised what Soonyoung meant.

However, due to the exam period, Jihoon managed to avoid Seungcheol and it caused Soonyoung to have to think more carefully about how he was going to get Jihoon and Seungcheol together. It did help that prom was coming up. Soonyoung decided to set up plan “Third Wheeler” to get the two together. It was quite a simple plan to just flirt as much as possible so the two have no other choice but to talk to each other. He wasn’t able to see the plan through to the end, but he received a message from Wonwoo informing him the plan went well and that they kissed, which lead to Soonyoung kissing Seokmin out of excitement, before they kissed a second time. The second kiss was only filled with love and passion for the other.

Soonyoung took a gap year after finishing school and spent most of his time running a dance club. He then attended a university with Seokmin the following year. Seokmin took up childcare and Soonyoung took up dance. Seokmin enjoyed the times where he had to work with kids and loved doing music sessions with them.

“Soonyoung.” Seokmin shook the boy by the shoulders, “Soonyoung, you need to get up.” Soonyoung only responded by grabbing Seokmin and pulling him into bed with him. Soonyoung murmured something, but it was too muffled to make out. “We need to get up now.” Seokmin tried to sound stern, but he was smiling. He sighed, when Soonyoung only wrapped his arms around Seokmin in response. “Soonyoung…” He muttered. “Fighting!” He called into Soonyoung’s ear and Soonyoung suddenly sat up in response. Seokmin laughed at his boyfriend's dumb antics. Soonyoung looked at Seokmin as he slowly sat up as well. The two slowly got up and went about getting ready. They both played music in the background and occasionally sang or danced a part together. Once they finished getting ready and and had eaten breakfast, they shared a small kiss, before holding hands and walking to their first lessons for the day.


	4. Seungkwan and Hansol: Dealing with the Diva

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's all a dare, but then feelings get involved and suddenly, it's a mess.

“So when are we going to get to meet this Jihoon guy you always talk about?” Seungkwan said in between gulps of water.

“I’m still trying to convince him to join.” Soonyoung ended up announcing to nearly every member of the dance club, who were all intrigued by Soonyoung’s sudden infatuation with a boy named Jihoon.

Jihoon ended up joining the club 2 weeks later after Seungcheol heard about it. While it slightly annoyed Soonyoung that Seungcheol had joined as well because even he could spot the way Seungcheol’s eyes would sometimes linger on Jihoon a few moments then they should and the way Seungcheol was the only one who could hug Jihoon. He was envious. He just hoped it’s because of how long they have known each other, but deep down he knew it was definitely something more. They just didn’t know it yet.

“Ah! So you must be Jihoon! I’m Seungkwan!” Seungkwan introduced himself almost immediately. He was slightly shocked that this was the type of guy Soonyoung had fallen for. Soonyoung was bright, lighthearted and cheerful, but Jihoon looked grumpy and serious, even with his cute appearance. It was something about the way the boy held himself. He looked slightly insecure, but he spread his feet about and crossed his arms to hide it or at least in the hopes that no one will question him on it though. It must be working for Jihoon though as no one had questioned it so far and Seungkwan had no plans to do so, his specialty was creating a happy mood so getting involved in the issue would only spread the tension.

“It’s nice to meet you, Seungkwan.” Jihoon bows and Seungkwan feels a shiver run down his spine, when he notices Jihoon staring at Seungkwan’s right hand. Scared there was something on it, Seungkwan’s eyes slowly moved down to his hand and to his surprise, there was nothing. His hand didn’t look any different. He wondered if Jihoon just had such powerful vision that he could see the smallest pieces of bacteria on Seungkwan’s hand. However, Seungkwan quickly snapped out of it and bowed back to Jihoon, before turning to the boy who had arrived with Jihoon.

“And you are?” Seungkwan smiled.

“Choi Seungcheol, this guy’s best friend.” Seungcheol smiled back, bowing to Seungkwan before also shaking his hand. Seungcheol and Jihoon exchanged a quick glance and then Seungcheol released Seungkwan’s hand as if Jihoon and Seungcheol had exchanged some sort of code. Seungkwan made it his life's goal to find out every secret about the two after that. He didn’t care much about their relationship, but they were quite clearly hiding something.

“I see. It’s nice to meet you, Seungcheol and you too Jihoon.” Seungkwan had to resist grinning.

“Ok, go away now you creep.” Soonyoung pushed Seungkwan away, before he could interrogate them or potentially traumatise his crush. “Go play with Chan or something.”

“Fine.” Seungkwan whined, wondering over to Chan and Junhui to moan about how annoying Soonyoung is.

A few weeks later, Seungkwan found himself hugging a crying Soonyoung. Why Soonyoung had come to him of all people is a question he can ask later. For now, Seungkwan needed to focus on getting Soonyoung to stop crying. Soonyoung had been so upbeat yesterday when he told Seungkwan his plan to confess that it shocked him to see Soonyoung so upset, which meant that Jihoon had turned him down. Seungkwan sort of expected it. He had seen the way Jihoon looks at Seungcheol, even if Jihoon wasn’t aware he was doing such things.

“It’s ok, Soonyoung. You’ll find someone even better than Jihoon one day.” Seungkwan patted Soonyoung’s head, “I, Boo Seungkwan, promise that!” He laughed, but Soonyoung still stayed with his head in Seungkwan’s chest, crying. “Besides, Jihoon can be pretty grumpy anyway. Don’t you want someone who would always be smiling beside you? Someone who would make you so happy it felt like the sun was beaming down on only you?” Seungkwan added.

“Jihoon said something like that as well.” Soonyoung murmured into Seungkwan’s head. “I just really liked him. He’s so hardworking and even if he doesn’t show it, he cares. He cares so much. Seungcheol told me that Jihoon wanted to become a singer, but he was hesitating because of his father. There was also the time, I sprained my ankle and Jihoon carried me all the way to the nurse, even though it was quite obvious he was struggling. I mean, he moaned about it the whole way, but he still carried me.”

“Are you sure you don’t just admire Jihoon? Admiration and love can sometimes be confused. Like I admire Beyonce, but that doesn’t mean I love her.” Seungkwan explained and Soonyoung slowly nodded. They stayed in that position for a while, until Seungkwan got pins and needles and they had to move.

A few weeks later, Soonyoung found his sun and Seungkwan was proud. He couldn’t help feeling that Jihoon had something to do with it, but if he did, nothing was said. Seungkwan just allowed himself to get annoyed at Soonyoung for taking 2 years to confess to Seokmin. However, at the same time Seungkwan was getting annoyed at the fact everyone was finding love.

“Seungkwan! Truth or dare?” Jihoon asked from the other end of the table. Soonyoung was in his 3rd year at highschool now and Seungkwan was in his 1st. The others always moaned that he, Soonyoung and Seokmin were too loud, but he didn’t care. It was their own fault for agreeing to play whatever game Seungkwan thought of that day.

“Dare!” Seungkwan announced. He wasn’t expecting anything challenging as Jihoon didn’t seem to display any interest in this game, but at the same time, who knows what Jihoon is capable of.

“You see that guy sitting alone over there?” Jihoon pointed to a table that had one guy that at it. Seungkwan nodded. “I dare you to ask him on a date.” Jihoon smirked. He didn’t plan on telling Seungkwan that the boy at that table was Seungkwan’s soulmate.

“A date?!” Seungkwan nearly choked on thin air. Jihoon just nodded. “I trusted you, Jihoon!”

“Don’t worry too much, Seungkwan.” Seungcheol added, “Besides, the guy looks kind of attractive from here.”

“I hate you all.” Seungkwan moaned, vowing in his mind to never suggest truth or dare again. He rose from his seat and shot the group one last hopeful look, before approaching the boy. Once there Seungkwan coughed slightly, “Hi, can I sit here?” He asked and the boy nodded. “I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m Seungkwan.” Seungkwan introduced himself.

“I’m Hansol, but most of my friends call me Vernon.” Hansol responded, removing the earphone he had in, to show he was paying attention.

Seungkwan hesitated for a minute, before getting straight to business. “Listen my friends and I were just playing truth or dare and they just dared me to ask you on a date, so go on a date with me, please?” Seungkwan stated and anyone, other than Jihoon, would have been annoyed at Seungkwan giving away that this was a dare, but Jihoon didn’t care as long as the two started interacting. The rest was basically set in place.

“Wait, so you want me to go on a fake date with you because you were dared to?” Hansol confirmed and Seungkwan nodded. “Sure, on one condition.”

“What is it? I mean if it’s a no kissing policy, then that’s fine with me, I’m saving these lips for my soulmate anyway!” Seungkwan quized.

“No. No. Just can you pretend to be my boyfriend? I made a bet with my friend on who could get a boyfriend, or girlfriend, first, and I don’t want to lose to him. Please, I can’t lose to him. I don’t have the money to lose to him!” Hansol grabbed Seungkwan’s hands out of nervousness.

“Sure, so should we pretend to go on a couple of dates and then claim that we’re now dating?” Seungkwan plotted.

“Sounds good.” Hansol agreed, before spotting the friend he made the bet with approaching, “Shit. He’s coming. Give me your phone number quickly. I’ll text you and then we can arrange it all properly.” He passed Seungkwan his phone and Seungkwan quickly added his number to Hansol’s contacts, before returning the phone and running off.

“Bye!” Seungkwan called back. He sat down with his friends and glanced at Hansol, who was now sat with his friend.

“You look annoying smug.” Jihoon stated. “I take it he said yes?”

“Of course! Who could resist Boo Seungkwan’s charms?” Seungkwan struck several poses.

“Most people. It’s not a hard task.” Jihoon answered, causing Seungkwan to pout, “So where are you planning on going on your date?”

“I’m not sure. A cafe maybe? Get hot drinks. Walk round town. Maybe see a movie?” Seungkwan thought about it.

“Going to a cafe sounds nice.” Soonyoung smirked. “It would make it so much easier for us to keep an eye on you.”

“Nu-uh.” Seungkwan straight away began to protect himself, “There is no way I am going to the cafe Jihoon and most of you guys work at.”

“Seungkwan, I will make sure the drinks are free.” Jihoon debated.

“Fine, I’ll go to your dumb cafe, but I’m going to drink all of your hot chocolate!” Seungkwan gave in. The idea of a free hot chocolate was too tempting.

That evening, Seungkwan received a text from an unknown contact, which he quickly deduced to be Hansol. He added him to his contacts, before reading the text.

** From Hansol: **

_ heyyo its vernon _

_ when and where do u want to meet  _

_ for our date? _

** To Hansol: **

_ Hi, I was thinking at the cafe, 20.  _

_ Have you heard of it? Its on chuck  _

_ lane. We could get coffee and then _

_ watch a movie or something? Theres _

_ a new cinema that opened recently _

_ called shining diamond. _

** From Hansol: **

_ yeah ive heard of it. sounds like  _

_ a cool plan. when? _

** To Hansol: **

_ Saturday at 1pm? _

** From Hansol: **

_ that’s fine with me. _

Seungkwan was feeling slightly excited for his date, even if it was fake. Jihoon noticed and raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like someone’s looking forward to his date. Does someone have a little crush?” Jihoon smirked.

“It’s just a date.” Seungkwan retorted.

“If that’s your belief then I won’t question it.” Jihoon walked off, taking Seungkwan’s empty cup of coffee with him. “Also, make sure you leave a tip as thanks.”

“Thanks for what?” Seungkwan groaned, but Jihoon was already busy working again.

Meanwhile, Soonyoung and Seungcheol were having a similar kind of conversation at the park, but we don’t need to know about that yet.

Saturday came and Seungkwan was a little bit nervous about his fake date with Hansol. He wasn’t sure how easily it would be to pretend with probably most of his friends watching. He had pre warned Hansol about his friends, who would probably stalk them and Hansol had responded that his friends would probably also be stalking them, which meant that they would likely have 10 people following them; Chan, Jisoo, Junhui, Jihoon, Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Soonyoung, Seokmin, Mingyu and Wonwoo. However, Hansol had noticed Junhui spending increasing amounts of time with another girl. Junhui seemed to spend a lot of time flirting with others, but his heart never seemed to be in the relationship. Seungkwan, on the other hand, was worried that Jeonghan and Seungcheol’s flirting would attract too much attention and their date would be too awkward.

“Hey.” Seungkwan waved Hansol over to the table he was sat at.

“Hey!” Hansol smiled.

“Sorry I didn’t order you anything. I wasn’t sure what you’d want.” Seungkwan bowed.

“It’s fine. I’ll just go get a hot chocolate.” Hansol moved to the counter.

“No, I’ll go get it. What do you want?” Seungkwan rose, blocking Hansol’s path.

“Are you sure?” Hansol questioned and Seungkwan nodded. “A hot chocolate with whipped cream.”

“Ok, I’ll be right back! Don’t miss me too much!” Seungkwan joked, before immediately cringing. He did not just say that right? Seungkwan wished he could chuck himself out a window at that moment, but instead he just went up to the counter, where Jihoon and Soonyoung were busy peeing themselves with laughter.

“Hello, Mr Cringekwan.” Soonyoung joked, “What can I get you?”

“A deep hole for me to crawl into.” Seungkwan looked down.

“I’m sure Hansol will be more than happy to assist you with that.” Jihoon grinned.

“Ew! No! Jihoon, you’re gross!” Seungkwan groaned.

“If it makes you feel any better, Hansol is currently blushing with embarrassment.” Seungcheol walked past, going behind the counter.

“That does not help, Seungcheol.” Seungkwan glared. “Just get me two hot chocolates with whipped cream.”

“What happened to your diet?” Jihoon quized as he started making the coffee.

“Fuck you, Jihoon.” Seungkwan snapped.

“I think it’s a good thing that you’ve stopped.” Jihoon responded, his back turned to all of them. “I think your slight chubbiness makes you seem more approachable.”

“Woozi means it makes you cuter. He just hates that word.” Seungcheol translated.

“You’re one to talk, Jihoonie.” Soonyoung laughed, “I’m pretty sure you’ve lost more weight than Seungkwan has.” Soonyoung stopped dead though when Jihoon shot him one of his famous death glares.

“Just take your hot chocolate, before I change my mind and charge you.” Jihoon shoved the two hot chocolates into Seungkwan’s hands.

“Hey, I wasn’t the one who said that!” Seungkwan defended. “But thank you, Jihoon.” He smiled at Jihoon, before turning back to his date. So far, he had spotted Jihoon, Seungcheol, Soonyoung and Seokmin, but no Jeonghan, Mingyu and Wonwoo. He guessed that Jeonghan wasn’t there because Seungcheol currently wasn’t working and Mingyu and Wonwoo probably had other plans, which probably involved kissing while playing Mario Kart. He wasn’t too worried about Seokmin, as Seokmin was probably there to watch Soonyoung work. He was just concerned about the idiot trio at the counter.

“Were your friends hassling you?” Hansol had stopped blushing and was now occasionally twiddling with his fingers.

“You have no idea how annoying they can be.” Seungkwan declared, handing Hansol his hot chocolate and taking a sip of his own. He heard Hansol thank him before continuing. “They just constantly tease me, when they’re no better off. Two of them are in love with each other, but don’t realise it. I mean one of them is dating another guy, when he clearly loves Jihoon.” Seungkwan explained. “Then there’s Soonyoung and Seokmin. They love each other and they continuously act like a couple, holding hands, hugging, cuddling, you know, that sort of stuff, but they haven’t confessed to each other yet!” He angrily took a sip of his hot chocolate.

Hansol laughed, “That’s some crazy friends you’ve got.” He carefully took a sip of his drink, wiping the cream off his lip. “Only one of my friends has dated before and he dates so frequently that I doubt it’s actually dating anymore. I think he does it for entertainment at times, but at the same time, he looks like he’s searching for something. Maybe he’s just trying to find love. Then, there’s Jisoo. Jisoo hasn’t dated before, so me and him made that bet. He doesn’t seem to be anywhere close to finding someone though.”

Seungkwan found himself laughing, “One of your friends sounds like Junhui!”

“You know Jun?” Hansol raised an eyebrow.

“Wait, you were talking about Junhui?” Seungkwan leaned forward.

Hansol nodded. “Yeah. He’s my friend. How do you know him?”

“We both go to dance club.” Seungkwan explained.

“Really? Jun’s always trying to convince me to join, but it’s not really my thing. I’m more into rapping.” Hansol beamed.

“Rapping? I love rapping, but I’m probably better at singing.” Seungkwan was growing more excited by the minute.

“We should do a duet at some point!” Hansol joked. Maybe, fake dating wasn’t as hard as they first thought.

“We could be Boonon or something!”

“That’s great! Boonon!”

The door to the cafe opened and Hansol spotted Junhui and Jisoo enter with whom he guessed was Chan. However, he had only heard about the boy from Junhui, so he couldn’t be sure.

“Jun’s here.” Hansol hid slightly, using a menu. Seungkwan copied the action, watching Junhui from their table.

“Should we finish our hot chocolates then go?” Seungkwan asked, keeping his voice low, even though Junhui had already seen them.

“Yeah, let’s do that.” Hansol agreed and the two quickly finished their hot chocolate, before rising from their seats. Just as they were about to leave, Jeonghan entered. He sent Seungkwan a quick smile, before heading over to Seungcheol. On his way, Jeonghan noticed Junhui and waved, prompting Jisoo to introduce himself.

The rest of Hansol & Seungkwan’s date went well. They arranged another, then a third and so on. Eventually, they became a fake couple, managing to get together before Jisoo and Jeonghan did, allowing Hansol to win the bet, even if he was technically cheating. Seungkwan and Hansol stayed fake dating for a while, unsure of how to end everything between each other, due to the growing closeness between their friends. They decided to wait until everyone except Chan had graduated, then they could just naturally end the fake dating and remain as friends. They pressured Chan into secrecy. However, there was one thing the two did not account for: the fact that they are soulmates, bound together. Both of them agreed to ending the fake dating and it ended, but both felt hurt. They were just too scared to admit it. They didn’t want to ruin the chance of them being friends. It became a little hard to continue the act around Christmas though.

The two were sat in 20 and they were having a heated argument on who’s rapping was better. Their faces were getting closer and closer together and they were looking deep into each other’s eyes.

“At least I can rap with a wide variety of notes.” Seungkwan yelled into Hansol’s face.

“Yeah, but you fail on the pronounciation more than I do.” Hansol responded.

“Yeah, well at least I don’t look like a granny when I rap.” Seungkwan defended.

“At least my lips look nice when I rap.” Hansol threw it back.

“Well, at least my lips taste nice.”

“Really? Maybe I should test that argument!” And, Hansol did. A second later, his lips were pressed firmly against Seungkwan’s. He pulled back after about 10 seconds. “Ok, I agree.”

“Do you want to double check?” Seungkwan grinned and Hansol agreed with another kiss. This continued until everyone in the cafe was getting a little bit weirded out by their kisses. The two laughed as they ran out of the cafe, the atmosphere being too crowded to stay. 

They strolled back to Hansol’s house, where Hansol then asked, “So are we a couple now?”

“Of course, you idiot.” Seungkwan explained, proceeding to whine about the fact that his boyfriend’s an idiot.

The two graduated together and studied music together in university. Hansol focused on rap and Seungkwan focused on singing. The two would later become the famous rap duo, Boonon.


	5. Jeonghan and Jisoo: Matchmaker's Competition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They started off moving backwards, but they ended up reaching the finishing line.

Jisoo didn’t have many friends. It’s not that he was a horrible person or he didn’t want more; he was incredibly friendly. It’s just he was scared that people would judge him for not having the best Korean. Sure, he had Korean blood flowing through him, but living in America for most of his life had taken it’s toll on him, so he tended to stay with Junhui and Hansol, who kind of understood his predicament. 

Hansol was occasionally bullied for being mixed, which was unreasonable because his mixed blood only made him more attractive, in Jisoo’s opinion. No, Jisoo did not love Hansol. Hansol was just one of his closest friends. 

Junhui, on the other hand, was from China, and was still struggling to learn Korean. Considering the length of time Junhui had been in South Korea, Jisoo was jealous that Junhui had picked up the language so fast. Jisoo had tended to avoid using Korean back in America because he figured he would never need it and ended up regretting it when he moved to South Korea at the age of 14. That didn’t mean Jisoo came to South Korea knowing no Korean; he was just a bit out of practice and it lacked a natural flow. In a way, he was lucky to meet Hansol, who spoke both Korean and English. Hansol was his next door neighbour and the two quickly became friends.

Luckily, despite not attending the same school for the first couple of years, Jisoo wasn’t lonely. During his first couple days, Jisoo found himself paired up with Junhui quite a lot, as the two were both struggling at socialising with the others in their class. It was awkward between the two, at first, but they quickly managed to sympathise with each other on their lack of Korean speaking skills. 

Jisoo also eventually found himself hanging out with a boy named Chan, who Junhui often hung out with at dance club. Chan was nice. He respected them, even if they sometimes mispronounced something or used the wrong word or phrase. Chan explained, when they first met, that most of the other members of dance club were too troublesome and that Junhui was chill so he was cool to hang out with, as he knew he wouldn’t end up being dragged to some underage drinking party. It wasn’t like the others were underage drinking, it’s just that they joked about it a lot and Chan was scared that one day, they would go through with it. Jisoo knew from that moment, it was his duty to keep Chan innocent and pure and to do that, he needed to make sure Chan was never entirely alone with Junhui, as Junhui may teach Chan the wonders of making out.

The two went through a lot together. Jisoo was content with everything. He was single, he had the greatest two friends in the world, his anime collection was growing and he was in the top 5 for school grades. He was happy with his life, until he met Jeonghan.

Jeonghan transferred in their third year. From there, Jeonghan quickly befriended Seungcheol and most of his friends. Jeonghan was like an angel, in appearance at least, but looks can be deceiving and Jeonghan was a perfect example of that. He fell in love with Seungcheol, something that wasn’t his fault. Seungcheol was incredible, after all. However, Seungcheol looked at him and everyone else differently to Jihoon. Jeonghan wanted to be Jihoon. He needed to replace him, if he even stood a chance at dating Seungcheol. He started getting to the cafeteria earlier to sit by Seungcheol. He started walking to and from school with Seungcheol, distracting Seungcheol from going to make sure Jihoon actually attended school. Jihoon had a tendency to lose track of time. Jeonghan claimed that just texting or calling Jihoon should be enough and Seungcheol believed him. Jeonghan tried to appear even more beautiful, dying his hair different colours to stand out, not realising that Jihoon used to do the same thing, but for different reasons. Jeonghan’s plan ended with a confession to Seungcheol.

“Seungcheolie!” Jeonghan smiled, holding the other’s hands. “I love you.” He looked him deep in the eyes. “Will you go out with me?”

Seungcheol smiled, “Sure. I would love to.” Jeonghan didn’t know about Seungcheol’s inability to turn someone down, but he didn’t need to because in a way, Seungcheol was his and he had beaten Jihoon, in an unknown battle. However, Seungcheol still wasn’t his. Seungcheol’s eyes still drifted to Jihoon and he was still spending more time with Jihoon than with Jeonghan. He needed to get Jihoon to back off. He needed to let Jihoon know that Seungcheol was his, not Jihoon’s. He started arranging to meet up with Seungcheol more. He started walking him to and from lessons and taking him to and from work. He made sure that he kissed Seungcheol, when Jihoon was watching. He knew it was working. Even if Jihoon wouldn’t admit it, he could see it was affecting him. Jeonghan felt relief in knowing, Jihoon knew that he was losing. Jeonghan was finally winning. 

Everything was going well, until he met Jisoo.

Jisoo was there to ~~spy~~  keep an eye on Hansol’s date and Jeonghan was on his way to meet Seungcheol at the end of Seungcheol’s shift. Jeonghan had entered the cafe and noticed Seungcheol was still working. He made his way to the counter, sending Seungkwan, who was on his way out, a quick smile. He reached the counter, waving at Junhui and noticing the two boys to his side. 

He went to introduce himself, but one of the boys beat him to it. “I’m Jisoo, Jun’s friend.” Jisoo bowed, smiling. Jeonghan found himself lingering on Jisoo’s cat like eyes. They were enchanting, as if they were casting a spell on Jeonghan. Jeonghan shook his head. He had a boyfriend.

“I’m Jeonghan. I occasionally wind up hanging out with Junhui.” Jeonghan bowed back. It wasn’t a lie. While Jeonghan didn’t attend dance club like most of the others, because it required too much effort, Junhui hung out with them on rare occasions. An example of an occasion, is to roast Seungkwan when needed.

“I’m Chan, I attend dance club with Jun!” Chan beamed. Truthfully, Jeonghan had forgotten about Chan.

“Ah, you’re the young one that Seungcheol occasionally mentions!” Jeonghan realised. “Ah! You’re so cute! Can I adopt you? Say your Jeonghanie’s baby! Go on!” Jeonghan grinned.

“Careful, you might end up in a war with Jisoo over that.” Junhui pointed out.

“I don’t care! I must adopt him!” Jeonghan defended. “Who’s baby are you?” He grabbed Chan by the shoulders to keep him from escaping.

Chan apologised to Jisoo through his eyes, before saying, “Jeonghanie’s baby!” Jisoo shot him a look of betrayal, but Jeonghan was cheering and for some reason it calmed Jisoo, only slightly. He had still stolen Chan from Jisoo, after all.

Jisoo and Jeonghan started seeing each other more and more, especially after Seungkwan and Hansol started their fake dating. Jeonghan began arguing with Seungcheol more. He soon began to realise what was going to happen and he accepted it. Their relationship was never going to work from the beginning. It’s just that now, Jeonghan’s eyes were also drifting. The love he felt for Seungcheol was fading and their was nothing he could do. Jisoo was just too charming.

“Seungcheol, let’s break up.” Jeonghan suggested. He was expecting Seungcheol to just calmly agree. Seungcheol’s forced love act was beginning to fade and he must have known this moment was coming.

“Why?” Seungcheol questioned, borderline tears. “Am I not enough? Did I do something wrong? Am I unloveable?”

Jeonghan couldn’t help, but laugh, “Seungcheol since the beginning of this relationship, you’re heart was never mine. It’s clear that you love someone else.” 

“What do you mean? Who could I love more than you?” Seungcheol was struggling to realise that his feeling towards Jeonghan weren’t love, just a very strong friendship.

“You’re eyes,” Jeonghan began, “They always seem to find Jihoon, not me. At first, I thought maybe you had a fading one-sided love for Jihoon, but that look never faded, no matter how much I distracted you from him. It’s been clear since the beginning that you couldn’t love me. It’s just now, I’ve also got someone who my eyes drift to.”

“I don’t love Jihoon! We’re just close friends.” Seungcheol defended, grabbing Jeonghan’s wrist and looking him in the eyes. “I love you, Jeonghan.”

“No, you don’t. You think you do because you’re trying to find the easy way out. You’re scared that Jihoon’s not the one. You’re scared because no one can predict the path of love-”

“Jihoon can.” Seungcheol snapped, “Jihoon can tell when it comes to soulmates.” Jeonghan raised an eyebrow in curiosity and Seungcheol quickly realised what he said. “Wait. Forget that!”

“No way, Mister.” Jeonghan crossed his arms, “Explain. How does Jihoon know?”

Seungcheol sighed, “Fine, but don’t tell anyone and don’t let Jihoon know I told you. Wait, you don’t need to worry about Soonyoung. He also knows, but Jihoon doesn’t know Soonyoung knows.”

“I promise.” Jeonghan smiles, “You’re not good at keeping secrets.”

“And you would never let me escape.” Seungcheol frowned. “The simplest way to put it is Jihoon can see the red strings of fate.”

“Your joking.” Jeonghan would have spit out his drink, had he had one. “I don’t believe you.”

“I’m not lying. Jihoon can see the red string of fate. He always has been able to, which is why I know Jihoon and I aren’t soulmates. Jihoon claims he can’t see his own string, but I have a feeling that he doesn’t have one. Jihoon’s never shown any interest in guys, after all.” Seungcheol explained.

“Wait! Wait wait wait. Hold up a second.” Jeonghan raised a hand. “Then, who am I connected to?”

Seungcheol sighed again, “Jisoo. That’s why I didn’t want you to meet him because I knew it would end up just like Jihoon’s parents marriage and here we are.” 

“So, if you’re not my soulmate, then who’s your soulmate?” Jeonghan quized.

“Jihoon doesn’t know. I don’t have a string. Jihoon says that can mean one of three things.” Seungcheol explained. “One, I don’t have a soulmate and I’m both asexual and aromantic, but I’m not as I have had attractions to guys and girls before. Two, my soulmate isn’t born yet, which I am hoping isn’t the case, but at the same time it’s the most likely. I mean, I don’t want to be this big an age gap between me and my soulmate. Finally, I could be Jihoon’s soulmate, but like I said, I’m pretty sure he’s asexual and aromantic.”

“So you’re Jihoon’s soulmate?” Jeonghan grinned.

“No! Weren’t you listening? I said, I think he’s asexual and aromantic!” Seungcheol rubbed his forehead.

“Or, he could be right and he could be your soulmate. Sight isn’t our only sense, Seungcheolie. He could feel the string on his finger.” He debated.

“Shit. I didn’t think of that.” Seungcheol’s mouth dropped open.

“The main question here is are you aware that you are in love with Jihoon?”

“No. He’s just a friend. I love you.”

Jeonghan groaned. “You’re so dense. Well, we’re breaking up anyway. You already know Jisoo is my soulmate, so I’m sorry. I hope one day you realise that you love him.” He turned and left, leaving Seungcheol to return to crying. Jeonghan texted Jihoon to tell him to come comfort Seungcheol as he had just broken his heart and as Jeonghan walked down the hall to the cafeteria, Jihoon ran past him.

A couple days later, Jeonghan and Jisoo officially became a couple. Their confession wasn’t anything special; Jisoo just liked the way Jeonghan’s hand fit into his and Jeonghan just liked the feeling of his lips on Jisoo’s. They shared their first kiss at Jisoo’s house by accident and they just realised that they liked it too much, so they repeated the action, again and again. They were soulmates it was to be expected.

Jisoo liked the way Jeonghan could lure you in with his angelic appearance, then quickly turn into a demon. He wanted to be deceived by Jeonghan and lured into as many traps as possible. However, he also liked Jeonghan’s motherly side and didn’t mind claiming Chan as their son, with Jeonghan as the mother. He also liked cuddling Jeonghan. Jeonghan was lazy, so cuddling on the sofa was easy, so was cuddling everywhere. Jisoo especially liked the way Jeonghan would rest his head on Jisoo’s shoulder.

Jeonghan, on the other side, loved Jisoo’s innocence and kindness. He loved the way Jisoo would smile tenderly at him and the way Jisoo would always look into Jeonghan’s eyes for reassurance before initiating any romantic gesture. He loved the fact that Jisoo would allow him to laze around; how they didn’t have to go out on dates. They could just watch whatever anime Jisoo was into at that time and laze about on the sofa. Jeonghan liked the way his head fit on Jisoo’s shoulder. They complimented each other. The demon and the angel fit together like ying and yang.

The two graduated together and Jeonghan went on to study art, while Jisoo went on to study physics, with stargazing as a hobby. The two loved to go to the park at night and stare at the stars together. Occasionally, Jeonghan would paint it and Jisoo would point out the constellations. However, most the time they just lay on the grass, holding hands, until they began to freeze and decided to get a hot chocolate before going back to the dorms. Both of them had to admit that the other was much more beautiful than any ball of gas though.

Jihoon and Jeonghan made up eventually. Jeonghan apologised for trying to steal Seungcheol from him, but Jihoon thanked him for helping him realise his feelings for Seungcheol, which left Jeonghan a little confused.


	6. Junhui and Minghao: Matchmaker Caught in too Many Strings?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui travelled away from his childhood love and struggles to keep his thoughts from the kid he left behind. Meanwhile, Jihoon stresses over the number of strings tied to Junhui.

Junhui loved China, but most of all he loved the location of his house. He loved the idea of being able to go see Minghao basically whenever he wanted. Sometimes, he would even jump the short distance between Minghao’s bedroom window and Junhui’s. Junhui picked this room for a reason. Junhui loved how Minghao would sometimes pass snacks to Junhui from his house. Junhui loved how he could sit at his house and watch a movie with Minghao, without either having to move, so that when one of the two were grounded, they could still have plenty of fun. However, Junhui also loved going to Minghao’s house and sitting in his room. It allowed him to look at his own bedroom and laugh because he had crossed the distance. Junhui also loved Minghao. Minghao was sweet and innocent at times, but could be blunt and argumentative when needed, and Junhui loved both sides of him. Minghao was also accepting and allowed Junhui to occasionally whine about acting to Minghao when needed. It was an extremely rare occurrence, but it relaxed Junhui to know that there was someone there for him. Junhui didn’t hate his job in acting, it’s just sometimes the long hours and not being able to attend a public school took it’s toll on him. This was one of the reasons Junhui was relieved to have Minghao around. However, Minghao would occasionally bring home his friends from school and Junhui constantly feared that Minghao was just socialising with him out of pity because Minghao is a wonderfully kind person.

Junhui was wrong though. When Junhui told Minghao that he was moving to South Korea to attend high school there, Minghao cried. Junhui wished he could have changed his mind and stayed there, but if he did, his parents would have probably been able to convince him to continue acting and Junhui would never have had a normal life, even for a brief amount of time. Junhui didn’t plan to quit acting forever. He just wanted a break. He would attend high school like a normal kid, before studying acting at university, then he would return to acting and hopefully return to Minghao, as long as Minghao hadn’t moved on. Junhui knew not to tie Minghao down with those words and just promised to keep in touch. Like that, Junhui left his first and only real love behind.

Moving to South Korea was not easy, especially when you didn’t know a lot of Korean. Junhui knew how to introduce himself and could hold basic conversations, but if you asked him for directions on how to get to somewhere, he probably couldn’t answer. Partially because he didn’t know where much was in Korea, but also because he didn’t know enough Korean. However, Junhui happily moved in with a relative in Korea, who thankfully knew Chinese and Korean. With help from them, his Korean began increasing at an insane rate. It helped that Junhui was a fast learner.

To say he was worried about his first day at an actual school, would not be a lie, but at the same time he was excited about being able to learn from different teachers and not just some tutor his parent’s hired. However, at the same time, he was still learning Korean and there was much he didn’t know so he was terrified about whether he would be able to make friends or not because until now Minghao had been his only friend, well there were the other actors, but he wasn’t entirely sure whether he could consider them friends or not.

Sure enough, his first day began rather awkwardly. During registration, he, like a few others, was sat alone at a desk, which he had claimed as his own. He was lucky that his name was near the end as it allowed him to find out how he’s actually meant to answer the register. 

After finishing the register, the teacher spoke for a bit, before telling them to get into pairs. Immediately, everyone made eye contact with someone to make a pair with, except Junhui and Jisoo. Fortunately, the two spotted that the other was without a partner before they had to let anyone know that they didn’t have any friends.

“I’m Jisoo.” Jisoo smiled, bowing. 

“I’m-” Junhui corrected himself, reminding himself he had to speak Korean here, “I’m Junhui.” He bowed.

“Are you Chinese?” Jisoo questioned.

“Yes.” Junhui nodded, slightly confused.

Jisoo laughed slightly, “You were about to introduce yourself in Chinese.” He explained. “Don’t worry. I’m not great at Korean either. We’ll get through this together.”

“Where are you from?”

“America, but both of my parents are Korean.”

The two managed to get through school together and eventually, Junhui heard about a dance club in town. He tried to convince Jisoo to join with him, but Jisoo quickly informed him that he couldn’t dance and he didn’t want to end up embarrassing himself, but convinced Junhui to still join, in an attempt to get Junhui to make more friends. So Junhui joined the dance club, where after showing everybody his dance moves was quickly approached by an excited Chan, who wanted Junhui to teach him some moves. From there, Chan began to hang around Junhui more and more, claiming he was the only one not trying to ruin Chan’s innocence.

A couple months later, Jihoon joined the dance club with Seungcheol. Jihoon avoided Junhui for some reason and Junhui was unsure why, so he listened in on one of their conversations.

“So why are you scared of Junhui, Woozi?”

“He’s got two soulmates!”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s got two red strings of fate.”

“Ok. So what do we do?”

“I don't know, but one’s very far away, maybe even in another country. Maybe we should just leave him to sort it out. I mean, I’ve got my Dad to worry about.”

“Sure, but if you're ever planning anything, let me know.”

Junhui quickly moved away from the door, sensing that Seungcheol and Jihoon would probably return a minute later. He returned to the others and continued dancing, claiming that he couldn’t find the toilets. Chan offered to show him where they were, but he declined, saying he could hold it in. He could and he did. Jihoon and Seungcheol returned a few minutes later, Jihoon continued to show a relatively normal expression. Junhui learned, quite quickly, that unless Jihoon is literally borderline passing out, his face will remain as calm and relaxed as possible. Junhui would also learn, in university, that Jihoon passing out was an increasing occurrence. Seungcheol had informed Junhui and the others that it wasn’t like Jihoon was ill, he just refused to believe his limits. Of course, during high school days, Jihoon only ever passed out once and that was because someone had accidentally let go of their bat while batting. The outcome led to Jihoon getting hit in the face with a flying bat and being knocked unconscious with a bruised and bleeding nose.

Not much happened during Junhui’s school life other than that. There was the occasional one night hook-ups and the eventual end to his nighttime Skype calls to Minghao, but other than that, the only interesting occurrence was when he returned to China, on, what should have been, the night of his prom. A part of Junhui was expecting to see Minghao, waiting for him, but when he arrived, his parents informed him that Minghao had moved. When he asked where, they didn’t answer. He guessed there was something they were keeping from him, but he decided that Minghao probably wanted it that way and it was most likely that Minghao did, in fact, hate him. Junhui put it all behind him and instead, he focused on his ill brother. His brother didn’t really remember him, but he just wanted to cheer him up because apparently, his brother wasn’t meant to make it to his 6th Birthday. However, his brother made it to his 6th Birthday and many more after that. 

However, when Junhui began university, he was in for the shock of his life. His dorm roommate was none other than his childhood friend, Minghao. He dropped his luggage and just found himself staring at Minghao. Sure, Minghao was a lot taller now, but he was still Minghao. Junhui found himself struggling to form thoughts, let alone words.

“I got tired of waiting for you, Jun.” Minghao stated, placing his mug on the side. “So, I decided to come meet you halfway.” He laughed. “Although, I wasn’t expecting us to end up at the same university, let alone dorm.” Junhui didn’t realise how much he had missed Minghao’s voice, until he heard him. He wasn’t sure how to feel. He just stayed dead still, staring at his one and only crush. “In a way, this is good! I still don’t know much Korean.” Minghao laughed, rubbing the back of his head.

It set Junhui into action. He started laughing, slowly and quietly at first, but it grew stronger. Eventually, Junhui managed to find his voice. “You’re an idiot! You should at least learn most the language before you come.” Junhui’s voice was quiet. The two began to close the distance between them and eventually they were hugging.

“Ah! You’ve gotten a lot taller! I was hoping I would finally have overtaken you, when I next saw you.” Minghao whined into Junhui’s shoulder. Junhui didn’t say anything more. He didn’t usually and he didn’t need to. The two were back together and that was all that mattered.

They didn’t get together for ages after that. It wasn’t until the duo spotted a stray cat on the side of the road, that had an injured paw, that things began to change. They took the cat home and cleaned the cat’s paw, only to find a thin cut going down the back of it’s leg. They ended up using up their bandages, bandaging up the leg, but they didn’t care. Something bonded them to the cat and for the first time, the two felt a sense of responsibility. They both couldn’t let go of the cat. After agreeing to keep it, they remembered that they were in a dorm that didn’t allow pets. However, they knew a couple who happened to have an apartment that allowed pets. After, a ~~lot~~  little bit of peer pressure, Mingyu and Wonwoo agreed to keep the cat, as long as Junhui and Minghao payed for everything it needed.

“Minghao.” Junhui walked into the kitchen one evening.

“Yes?” Minghao raised his head from the water he was in the process of boiling.

“Now, that I think about it. You should be a year below me, so why are you already in university?” Junhui questioned.

“Because I skipped a year in Middle school. The headteacher told me I didn’t need to do that year as it would be pointless as I already knew the stuff it would cover.” Minghao explained. That’s when Junhui remembered the one thing about Minghao that irritated him to no end; Minghao was ridiculously clever, but at the same time, quite lazy, which is one of the reasons Minghao was picking up Korean so fast.

“I hate you.”

“Are you sure about that? Your diary says otherwise.”

“I don’t have a diary.”

“Well, you might as well be one because you’re basically an open book. You might think you’re good at hiding things, but I know Jun. I’m not stupid.”

Junhui was struggling to keep a blush from forming, but that wouldn’t stop him from pouting. “You only know me that well because we knew each other as kids.”

“True, but I’m also good at reading people.” Minghao smiled. “So, do you have anything you want to tell me? Like a certain few words?”

“I hate you.”

“Really? Are you sure you don’t mean to confess your undying love?”

“I hate you.” Junhui moved closer. “I hate when you get overconfident. I hate your eyes. I hate your face. I hate your hair. I hate your piercings. I hate your body and most of all, I hate your seductive lips.” Junhui practically breathed the words onto Minghao, before connecting their lips together.

When they finished, Minghao simply stated “I hate you too”, before reconnecting their lips again. He fumbled with the hob, after hearing the water boil and lowered it, still keeping his lips against Junhui’s. Junhui couldn’t say the words ‘I love you’, but with Minghao, he didn’t need to. Minghao understood. Minghao also knew that Junhui didn’t need to hear those words. They had always been awkward about expressing such feelings with each other. They simply enjoyed the other’s company.

Junhui gained a love for going on double dates. He especially liked ones with Mingyu and Wonwoo. It was just nice to see Minghao getting heated up as he argued with Mingyu about some trivial matter, while he and Wonwoo stopped and only got involved when needed. Junhui enjoyed the way that whenever Minghao lost, Minghao would suddenly bury his head into Junhui’s shoulder for a few minutes. It made Junhui want to make sure that Mingyu won every argument.

“So, Woozi? Does Junhui still creep you out?” Seungcheol sat on the swing next to Jihoon. He had dragged Jihoon out to get some much needed fresh air, seeing as Jihoon hadn’t seen the sun in over 48 hours.

“No. You wouldn’t believe it, but all along, one of Junhui’s soulmates was that scruffy cat. Same with Minghao.” Jihoon laughed.

“Wait, that cat is the two of them’s second soulmate?” Seungcheol couldn’t stop himself from laughing alongside Jihoon.

“They’re basically in a threesome with a cat!” Jihoon cackled. Junhui, Minghao and a small black cat, that they had found injured, were soulmates and they couldn’t be happier about it.


	7. Seungcheol's Little Matchmaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seungcheol retells the tale of how he fell in love with Jihoon.

I can’t really explain it. However, from the moment I first saw Jihoon, I knew that there was something special between us. I thought we were just destined to be the best of friends, but these feelings weren’t the kind you would have for someone who was only a friend. For the entire duration of my first sighting of Jihoon, my eyes were glued to him. I was mesmerised. He looked fragile, despite all the guards he seemed to have up. His expression was almost robotic, as if emotions were foreign to him, but I would soon learn that Lee Jihoon was the most emotional person to exist, even if he could not show it. 

It was my third time seeing Jihoon, when I finally managed to gather the courage to ask his mother, who he was. She was over the moon to introduce me to her pride and joy.

“Seungcheolie meet my little Jihoonie!” I watched Jihoon tense as his mother slid an arm around him and pulled him towards her. I wanted to erase that tension. I wanted Jihoon to openly embrace another, without being tense.

“Hi Jihoon!” I beamed, trying as hard as possible to get him to smile back. “I’m Seungcheol, but you can call me S.Coups!” I laughed, emphasising the final syllable as much as possible. I don’t know what I was thinking. Who the heck creates nicknames for themselves? Jihoon has never let me live it down, either. I noticed that in his contacts list, he still has me under S.Coups.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Jihoon’s tone was plain and blank, devoid of life. I wanted to change that. I wanted him to be so loud that his neighbours would forever be telling him off. I wanted him to be confident in who he was. I didn't want him to be scared. I wanted him to be comfortably awkward.

“I’m going to call you Woozi!” I stated. I remember that despite being a relatively chubby kid, Jihoon looked incredibly frail, as if he would snap the moment he moved. He looked as if his legs would give out from underneath him because he couldn’t handle everything and the world.

“Why?” I could have sworn that Jihoon sounded slightly flustered and it made me ecstatic to hear emotion in Jihoon. I craved his smile, his frown, his confusion, his happiness, his sadness, his excitement, his anger, his disappointment, his praise and most of all, I craved him, only as a friend, of course.

“Because you look like you’d struggle to stand with those weak legs.” I laughed. He threw all his crayons at me after that and I had to run away to my father. It was nice; seeing his anger.

I interacted with Jihoon more after that and we grew closer. It got to the point where we would see each other on a daily basis and I loved it. I loved the brief time we spent together in that cafe as kids and I will cherish those times forever. As we got older and more independent, our meetings became longer and at more random times. It was easy for us to meet up as I only lived down the road. Before we knew it, we were best friends and I thought I was satisfied.

At the age of 10, Jihoon told me about his ability. I listened to him, feeling more alive with every word that came out of his mouth.

“I can see stuff that other people can’t see.” Jihoon stated, one night. He was tired and his guard was slightly lower than usual. Of course, he would never admit that.

“What do you mean?” I rolled his desk chair over to where he was laid on his bed.

“I can see the red strings of fate that bind people together.” Jihoon explained, looking at his ceiling. I remember that 10 year old Jihoon was obsessed with stars and we had spent a whole day, with his mother, painting the galaxy on Jihoon’s ceiling. I loved the way his mother had blended the different shades of purple, blue and pinky, with the occasional tint of yellow to give it a glowing effect. I loved how Jihoon and I had painted the sun around his light.

“Really? Who am I binded to, then?” Being the curious child I was, I didn’t hesitate to ask him. If your best friend could see the red string of fate, wouldn’t you ask them?

“You don’t have a string.” Jihoon stated.

“What?!” I remember being horribly confused by how it was possible for someone to not have a string. I also dreaded the idea of being alone in life. I craved the company of another. I didn’t like being alone., “What does that mean?!”

“It could mean multiple things.” Jihoon was always straight forward in his explanation. “It could mean you are both asexual and aromantic. It could mean your soulmate isn’t born yet,” Jihoon hesitated, “Or, you could be the one who is unfortunate to be my soulmate.”

“What? So I could not have a soulmate? Or I could be 10 years older than mine? Isn’t that weird? I mean I don’t think we’re soulmates! We’re just the best of friends!” I responded. I didn’t realise how wrong I could be and 10 year old me, ended up unintentionally hurting Jihoon, even if Jihoon didn’t care.

It was a couple years after that when Jihoon finally told me about his parents situation. I dreaded the idea of Jihoon keeping that secret all his life. I wished he would have told me sooner.

“My mum and dad don’t really love each other.” Jihoon stated after a long period of silence had settled between us. Jihoon’s parents weren’t home and the two of us were both just lying on Jihoon’s bed, looking up at the ceiling. The galaxy was still there. 

“What do you mean? Are they not soulmates?” I looked at Jihoon. I remember have the urge to squish his cheeks that were more swollen up than usual, due to having to have a tooth removed recently. Now was not the right time.

“No. My dad’s soulmate must have passed away and I’ve never seen my mum’s soulmate, but I know they exist.” Jihoon still didn’t show any emotion on the outside, but I knew that it affected Jihoon, even if he didn’t admit it. I slowly held Jihoon’s hand and squeezed it once. It was my way of reassuring Jihoon with the smallest amount of physical interaction possible.

“What do you think is going to happen?” I tentatively asked. I dreaded the idea of Jihoon being split between two parents. Jihoon deserved the world and more, not this.

“Maybe they’ll meet and I’ll end up with split parents or they’ll never meet and my parents may manage to stay together.” Jihoon shrugged it off as casually as possible.

However, they met. One day, about a year later, his mother’s soulmate walked into the cafe, looking for job opportunities. His mother ended up hiring her and from there, their marriage began to fall apart. Jihoon had never looked so broken before then. Even if Jihoon looked the same, there were subtle differences. His eating patterns changed. His sleeping habits became more random and shorter. The tension when he was touched was stronger. He was closing in on himself again and I couldn’t let that happen.

Jihoon’s parents separated when he was 14 and I remember hearing Jihoon knock on my door at about 10pm. Despite my mother’s slight annoyance at the timing, Jihoon winded up staying over for a sleepover. I remember seeing Jihoon tremble in his sleep and I learnt why this was our first ever sleepover. Jihoon let his guard down completely when he slept.

It wasn’t long after that when we began making friends with other people. Jihoon was initially against the idea, but I guess that he wanted to make sure he had a safety net for if I ever ditched him. We ended up making friends with Soonyoung and I noticed that Jihoon would occasionally speak with this guy that I would later know as Wonwoo. However, I noticed Soonyoung was always a little too close to Jihoon and I decided to make sure I kept a tight grip on Jihoon, which meant joining dance club with Jihoon, even though I wasn’t a great dancer.

“Ah! So you must be Jihoon! I’m Seungkwan!” Seungkwan introduced himself almost immediately. His voice was loud and echoed around the hall. He seemed nice though and I thought it would be good for Jihoon to get used to noisier people.

“It’s nice to meet you, Seungkwan.” Jihoon bows and I don’t miss the way Seungkwan seemed to tremble for an instant when he notices Jihoon staring at his pinky, which was a habit Jihoon has. Whatever Seungkwan was thinking about, he quickly snapped out of it, before bowing back to Jihoon, then turning to face me.

“And you are?” Seungkwan smiled.

“Choi Seungcheol, this guy’s best friend.” I smiled back, bowing to Seungkwan before also shaking his hand. I exchanged a quick glance  with Jihoon, then released Seungkwan’s hand. The look we exchanged wasn’t much; it was just me checking whether it was ok with Jihoon for us to befriend him. 

“I see. It’s nice to meet you, Seungcheol and you too Jihoon.” Seungkwan seemed to be struggling to hold back a grin and it worried me slightly.

“Ok, go away now you creep.” Soonyoung pushed Seungkwan away, before he could say anything else to us.  “Go play with Chan or something.”

“Fine.” Seungkwan whined, wondering over to Chan and Junhui to moan about how annoying Soonyoung is.

Junhui was another problem for Jihoon. I had never seen Jihoon tense up so fast. The moment Jihoon laid eyes on Junhui, he froze. It was quite a shock for me to see, but I noticed Jihoon’s eyes were stuck on Junhui’s hands. Jihoon started avoiding Junhui after that and it made me laugh, seeing the boy’s antics. I had never seen Jihoon so confused and bewildered. At one point, I ended up having to take Jihoon to another room to talk about it, as it was getting slightly off putting.

“So why are you scared of Junhui, Woozi?” I interrogated him.

“He’s got two soulmates!” Jihoon exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” It can be hard sometimes, not seeing what Jihoon can.

“He’s got two red strings of fate.” He explained.

“Ok. So what do we do?”

“I don't know, but one’s very far away, maybe even in another country. Maybe we should just leave him to sort it out. I mean, I’ve got my Dad to worry about.” Jihoon’s father was still struggling to deal with the divorce. Apparently, it had gotten so bad at one point that his father’s tried to commit suicide. I never got the full details, but Jihoon somehow managed to convince him not to. Things were improving now, but Jihoon still couldn’t relax.

“Sure, but if you're ever planning anything, let me know.” There was no point in stressing Jihoon out any further. He already had a crack in him from his parent’s divorce, there was no point in enlarging the crack, until he broke. However, what I didn’t realise was that, every person I dated only made the crack was. I, myself, was hurting Jihoon.

I don’t know when I became a love counsellor for Soonyoung, but eventually, I found Soonyoung coming to me for advice on how to confess to Jihoon and how to get Jihoon to love him. It was ridiculous and none of it worked in the end, as unlike me, who was constantly holding back someone from their soulmate, Jihoon would never date someone else’s soulmate. He claimed, he didn’t see the point, but he still felt guilty when he turned down Soonyoung. It hurt me to see Jihoon upset, even if it wasn’t really noticeable, so I later agreed to assist in getting Soonyoung with Seokmin, when Seokmin finally began high school. It helped, that due to a lack of interest in childcare, my class consisted of 1st and 2nd years. It allowed me to talk to Seokmin easily and we found ourselves becoming friends, so it was quite easy to introduce him to Soonyoung. The two quickly became friends as well and our lunch table got even noisier. It didn’t help that I had also befriended Mingyu at the beginning of our 2nd year. Jihoon and Mingyu’s first interactions were quite funny.

“Hey, Seungcheol!” Mingyu waved at me. “Who’s this?” It was Mingyu’s first day at highschool and I had agreed to show the freshman around. I didn’t intend to end up befriending the giant.

“This is my best friend, Woozi.” I draped an arm over Jihoon, resting my head on Jihoon’s, which earned me a swollen foot from Jihoon, who, of course, stomped on my foot to get me off.

“Ignore him.” Jihoon moved away from me, “He’s just a nuisance. I’m Jihoon.” He stuck a hand towards Mingyu and gave him a small smile. I knew Jihoon was just joking.

“So cute.” Mingyu was about to receive the handshake, when he heard a small tsk sound from Jihoon. The next minute, Jihoon was about a metre away from hitting Mingyu with a guitar and the giant was borderline tears in the corner. Thankfully, I stopped Jihoon before anything bad happened. After that incident, Mingyu was a lot more careful around Jihoon and he seemed to have gained a fear of guitars and Jihoon. However, that did not stop Mingyu from becoming friends with Jihoon. It was probably a good thing, as I heard that Jihoon assisted in the meeting of Mingyu and Wonwoo. It was annoying as Mingyu and Wonwoo were constantly flirting alongside Soonyoung and Seokmin. However, both pairs were oblivious to the other’s feelings. Soonyoung was extra annoying as he kept coming to me for advice again, this time about Seokmin. He did appreciate that this time, Jihoon was there to help him, so he didn’t do much and just let Jihoon sort it out.

“He’s just got such a nice smile. Literally, every time he smiles, it’s like the universe lights up. He’s like the sun.” Soonyoung rolled around Jihoon’s bed, messing it up.

“You’ve already said that.” Jihoon sighed for about the 5th time.

“Yeah, but you just don’t get it. He’s just so amazing and his voice is like an angel has descended.” Soonyoung continued. He was swinging his arms about, as if he hoped to make snow angels with Jihoon’s bed.

“If you like him so much, why don’t just confess?” Jihoon lightly kicked Soonyoung with his right foot.

“You don’t understand. It’s not easy to confess. I might get rejected again. He might not even like me in that way.” Soonyoung defended himself.

“Soonyoung, you’ve basically been eye fucking for the last few weeks. I’m pretty sure you two love each other.” Jihoon tensed slightly at the mention of rejection. He still hadn’t entirely forgiven himself. It was so like Jihoon; he’s always saying he could have done better and that he can do better. Before you know it, Jihoon’s overexerting himself far too much. Despite all the meetings, no one really got together until our third year.

It was in our third year that Jeonghan transferred to our school. He gave off angelic vibes and his voice was holy and gentle. His eyes were gentle and kind, but despite all of that, he wasn’t angelic. He was constantly teasing us and pulling pranks on us. I loved the happy, laughing expression he would pull after a prank was successful. I thought I loved him. However before Jeonghan confessed, another duo finally got their act together.

It was a regular school day, except today, Wonwoo had called Mingyu up to the rooftop. They hadn’t managed to sneak away unnoticed though and Jihoon and I were hiding nearby. When I asked him, why we had to watch, he told me it was research. What was he even researching?

“So what do you need?” Mingyu asked, grinning like a child.

“Well,” Wonwoo was unable to meet Mingyu’s eyes. “We’ve been friends for a quite some time, but I was kind of hoping we could be more than that. You know?” Wonwoo glanced at Mingyu’s face.

“You want to be best friends?” Mingyu asked, “Sure.”

“No, something more than that. I like you a lot.” Wonwoo groaned slightly. I could feel Jihoon faceplam, next to me.

“Best friends forever?” Mingyu raised, “I mean, won’t Junhui be jealous? You’re pretty close with him afterall.” Jihoon had taken to headbutting me in the shoulder now.

Wonwoo sighed. “Yeah best friends forever. I’m sure Junhui won’t mind. He has a friend in China he talks to a lot.”

“Well, sure! I’ll be your best friend forever!” Mingyu beamed. “I can’t wait to tell Jihoon and the others!” Mingyu turned to the exit, “Come on! Let’s go eat lunch!”

“You go on ahead. I’ll catch up.” Wonwoo tried to smile.

“Ok! Don't be too long!” Mingyu disappeared down the stairs. Wonwoo stood staring at the door. Jihoon quickly popped out from his hiding spot, with me following.

“You guys were here the whole time?” Wonwoo’s gaze didn't move.

“Yeah.” Jihoon stated. “Mingyu can be a bit dense at times, but I'll talk to him after school. I won’t let you two down.”

“Thanks, Jihoon. I guess you're not always a jerk.” Wonwoo smiled slightly.

“Now, Seungcheol and I need to get to the canteen quickly to calm an excited Mingyu. Wait a couple minutes before following.”

I’m not sure what Jihoon did later that night, but the next day the duo came into school, flirting like no tomorrow. I think it allowed Jeonghan the chance to confess, as a couple days later, I was also confessed to.

“Seungcheolie!” Jeonghan smiled, holding my hands. “I love you.” He looked me deep in the eyes. “Will you go out with me?”

I smiled, “Sure. I would love to.” I’ve never been good at turning people down. I hated the idea of breaking their hearts, so I allow them to play with me for a bit, until they moved on. That way, I was the only one left with a broken heart. It’s fine. I can cope. My heart’s very strong. What I didn’t expect, was for Jeonghan and I to be as close as that. I didn’t want to get hurt. I didn’t want to get too attached, but I liked him so much.

I found myself drowning in Jeonghan’s infatuation for the next few weeks. Jeonghan filled my spare time. I was bound to Jeonghan at the hip, but it wasn’t by the red string of fate. Something wasn’t right and I could only turn to Jihoon for the answer. I hadn’t spoken to Jihoon in a while, but Jihoon and I were close, so it should be fine right.

I had invited Jihoon round and for the past few minutes, I could do nothing but stare at him. He was thinner than I remembered. His chubby cheeks were no longer in existence and he had closed back in on himself. His walls were back up and I wasn’t sure whether I even had the authority to tear them down anymore. No matter how Jihoon tried to hide them, I could see the eyebags that dragged his face down.

Eventually, Jihoon got tired of my constant staring and asked “What’s up?”

“Have you been eating and sleeping properly?” I didn’t expect him to answer truthfully. I just wanted him to know that I knew.

“Yes, of course.” Jihoon lied. It was always obvious to me when he lied. I could just tell, as Jihoon’s gaze would always shift to my pinky when he lied.

“Really?” I pried a bit further, “You look thinner. You used to have chubby cheeks, but now it’s gone.” I hesitated. “I miss it. I wish I had squished them more when I had the chance.”

“I guess it must have been baby fat.” Jihoon shrugged it off with another lie, “Why did you invite me around anyway?”

I sighed. He was trying to change the topic. It’s one of the things he does in a conversation when he’s uncomfortable with the subject. “I want you to tell me if Jeonghan’s my soulmate or not.”

“He’s not.” Jihoon straight up answered. “Strings will only appear if your soulmate is suddenly born and Jeonghan isn’t a baby.”

“With the way he acts sometimes I think he is.” I joked. “Damn. I really thought he was the one this time.” I covered my face. I can’t cry in front of Jihoon. He doesn’t need any more stress. I don’t need to crack him anymore.

“As long as you stop him and Jisoo from meeting, it could work.” Jihoon suggested.

“I’m scared, Woozi.” I admitted. “You tried your best to keep your parents together, but even she managed to find her soulmate.”

“I didn’t know who her soulmate was though. You know Jeonghan’s is Jisoo. All you have to do is make sure Jeonghan avoids Jisoo.” Jihoon tried his best to reassure me, but he didn’t seem entirely focused. His heart wasn’t in the idea. He wasn’t happy with it. Usually, when he has an idea, he’s so full of energy and he will forget everything, but then, he seemed distracted.

“Yeah… I guess.” I muttered, before noticing Jihoon moving, “You ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jihoon rubbed his chest slightly, “My chest just hurts slightly.”

“Do you need anything? Do you think you’re catching a cold or something?” I was quick to focus on his health, rather than my own troubles. Jihoon would do the same for me, usually, so for him to not hide it, it must have been bad.

“I’m fine. I might go home though. Have an early night, you know?” Jihoon smiled.

“Ok. I’ll walk you home.” I went to rise, but Jihoon stopped me.

“It’s fine. It’s only down the road anyway.” Jihoon smiled even wider, before he left. I didn’t know at the time that Jihoon was broken. I didn’t know that it was because of me.

Everything calmed for a little while after that. Soonyoung finally managed to confess to Seokmin and everything was peaceful or so I thought. It started with a harmless game of Truth or Dare.

“Seungkwan! Truth or dare?” Jihoon asked from the other end of the table. It had been noisier since Seungkwan started highschool. Soonyoung, Seokmin and Seungkwan put together caused the destruction of hearing, but they kept the mood at our table light and cheery.

“Dare!” Seungkwan announced. It was quite a risk that Seungkwan was taking. After all, he was accepting a dare from our resident, professional matchmaker.

“You see that guy sitting alone over there?” Jihoon pointed to a table that had one guy that at it. Seungkwan nodded. “I dare you to ask him on a date.” Jihoon smirked. I quickly guessed that the boy was Seungkwan’s soulmate, as Jihoon wouldn’t set up pointless dates.

“A date?!” Seungkwan nearly choked on thin air. Jihoon just nodded. “I trusted you, Jihoon!”

“Don’t worry too much, Seungkwan.” I added, “Besides, the guy looks kind of attractive from here.”

“I hate you all.” Seungkwan moaned, rising from his seat and going over to the boy. They spoke for a few minutes, before Seungkwan came back.

“You look annoying smug.” Jihoon stated. “I take it he said yes?”

“Of course! Who could resist Boo Seungkwan’s charms?” Seungkwan struck several poses.

“Most people. It’s not a hard task.” Jihoon answered, causing Seungkwan to pout, “So where are you planning on going on your date?”

“I’m not sure. A cafe maybe? Get hot drinks. Walk round town. Maybe see a movie?” Seungkwan thought about it.

“Going to a cafe sounds nice.” Soonyoung smirked. “It would make it so much easier for us to keep an eye on you.”

“Nu-uh.” Seungkwan straight away began to protect himself, “There is no way I am going to the cafe Jihoon and most of you guys work at.”

“Seungkwan, I will make sure the drinks are free.” Jihoon debated.

“Fine, I’ll go to your dumb cafe, but I’m going to drink all of your hot chocolate!” Seungkwan gave in. I don’t blame him. The hot chocolate we serve at 20 is delicious.

Lunch continued like normal and that night, I had a conversation with Soonyoung. We were both sat in the park.

“You and Jihoon are hiding something.” Soonyoung pointed out.

“Are we?” I questioned.

“Jihoon always stares at people’s hands.” Soonyoung continued before I could say anything else. “And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have a hand fetish, so spill.”

“Promise you won’t tell anyone?” I leaned towards him. I doubted it would stay a secret for too long after that, but you never know. Soonyoung isn’t the best at hiding things.

“I swear on Seokmin’s life.” Soonyoung saluted. “Oh! And my Moonlight Angel collection.”

“That’s Jihoon’s favourite anime.” I gasped. “Fine, I’ll tell you. Either way, it’s a win. Jihoon can see the red strings of fate and yes, you are bound to Seokmin.”

“Fuck!” Soonyoung’s jaw dropped. “No wonder Jihoonie turned me down.”

“Yes. Now don’t tell anyone. Don’t even let Jihoon know that you know.”

“Aye! Aye! Captain!” Soonyoung grinned.

It was a few days after that when Seungkwan had his date. Everything was fine. I managed to get to tease Seungkwan when he order hot chocolate and I was near the end of my shift. That’s when Jisoo, Junhui and Chan entered. I panicked slightly. Jeonghan usually comes to meet me at the end of my shift and Jisoo was currently in the cafe. I glanced at Jihoon, who could only shoot me a look of pity. My relationship with Jeonghan was about to begin a steady decline and it all started when Jeonghan entered the cafe and came to the counter. I had escaped into the back room so I didn’t have to see the beginning of the end, but I can tell it was probably the beginning of a great romance.

It wasn’t long after Seungkwan’s first date that he started officially dating Hansol, but despite the good news, I could only focus on Jeonghan. He was spending increasing amounts of time with Jisoo and I could see the chemistry between them. I didn’t have to see the red string of fate to tell that much. After a few months of a failing relationship, we finally broke up.

“Seungcheol, let’s break up.” Jeonghan suggested.

“Why?” I questioned, borderline tears. “Am I not enough? Did I do something wrong? Am I unloveable?” I liked him so much. It felt like I was breaking it to. This must have been how Jihoon felt for so many years.

Jeonghan laughed, “Seungcheol since the beginning of this relationship, your heart was never mine. It’s clear that you love someone else.”

“What do you mean? Who could I love more than you?” I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing down my face. I wanted to be with him.

“You’re eyes,” Jeonghan began, “They always seem to find Jihoon, not me. At first, I thought maybe you had a fading one-sided love for Jihoon, but that look never faded, no matter how much I distracted you from him. It’s been clear since the beginning that you couldn’t love me. It’s just now, I’ve also got someone who my eyes drift to.”

“I don’t love Jihoon! We’re just close friends.” I defended, grabbing Jeonghan’s wrist and looking him in the eyes. “I love you, Jeonghan.” I didn’t want to lose him. We had gone through too much.

“No, you don’t. You think you do because you’re trying to find the easy way out. You’re scared that Jihoon’s not the one. You’re scared because no one can predict the path of love-”

“Jihoon can.” I snapped, “Jihoon can tell when it comes to soulmates.” I quickly realised what I had just said. “Wait. Forget that!”

“No way, Mister.” Jeonghan crossed his arms, “Explain. How does Jihoon know?"

I sighed, “Fine, but don’t tell anyone and don’t let Jihoon know I told you. Wait, you don’t need to worry about Soonyoung. He also knows, but Jihoon doesn’t know Soonyoung knows.”

“I promise.” Jeonghan smiled, “You’re not good at keeping secrets.”

“And you would never let me escape.” I frowned. “The simplest way to put it is Jihoon can see the red strings of fate.”

“Your joking.” I’m sure that if Jeonghan had a drink, he would have spit out the contents. “I don’t believe you.”

“I’m not lying. Jihoon can see the red string of fate. He always has been able to, which is why I know Jihoon and I aren’t soulmates. Jihoon claims he can’t see his own string, but I have a feeling that he doesn’t have one. Jihoon’s never shown any interest in guys, after all.” I explained.

“Wait! Wait wait wait. Hold up a second.” Jeonghan raised a hand. “Then, who am I connected to?”

I sighed again, “Jisoo. That’s why I didn’t want you to meet him because I knew it would end up just like Jihoon’s parents marriage and here we are.”

“So, if you’re not my soulmate, then who’s your soulmate?” Jeonghan quized.

“Jihoon doesn’t know. I don’t have a string. Jihoon says that can mean one of three things.” I continued, “One, I don’t have a soulmate and I’m both asexual and aromantic, but I’m not as I have had attractions to guys and girls before. Two, my soulmate isn’t born yet, which I am hoping isn’t the case, but at the same time it’s the most likely. I mean, I don’t want to be this big an age gap between me and my soulmate. Finally, I could be Jihoon’s soulmate, but like I said, I’m pretty sure he’s asexual and aromantic.”

“So you’re Jihoon’s soulmate?” Jeonghan grinned.

“No! Weren’t you listening? I said, I think he’s asexual and aromantic!” I rubbed my forehead. I’m pretty sure I was thinking about how thickheaded Jeonghan could be at that point.

“Or, he could be right and he could be your soulmate. Sight isn’t our only sense, Seungcheolie. He could feel the string on his finger.” He debated.

“Shit. I didn’t think of that.” My mouth dropped open.

“The main question here is are you aware that you are in love with Jihoon?”

“No. He’s just a friend. I love you.”

Jeonghan groaned. “You’re so dense. Well, we’re breaking up anyway. You already know Jisoo is my soulmate, so I’m sorry. I hope one day you realise that you love him.” He turned and left, leaving me to return to crying. A few minutes later, Jihoon ran towards me and began trying to comfort me. I was so mad at him. It was because of him that Jeonghan refused to love me. Why did Jihoon have to see the red strings of fate? Why did Jihoon exist?

“Fuck off, Jihoon.” I yelled at him, my face drenched in tears. “What do you know? You’ve never been in love. You’re probably just ashamed that you don't have a red string on your finger.” I ran off and as I reached the exit, I began to realise what I had done. I turned back to glance at him once, before going out the door. He was so broken, yet he refused to show it. I caused that. I broke Lee Jihoon. No matter how much I searched for him to apologise, I couldn’t find him. It hurt so much. I had just broken my best friend. I didn’t even care about my feelings for Jeonghan anymore. I just wanted to make it up to Jihoon. I wanted to be able to his smile again. I wanted to hear his voice. I wanted to hear him hum songs, while he made drinks at 20. I wanted to hold his hand. I wanted to touch his face. That’s when it hit me. I was, and still am, in love with my best friend, Lee Jihoon.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to him, until our prom rolled around. Everyone was being extra lovey dovey and Junhui wasn’t there, so I had no choice, but to socialise with Jihoon unless we both wanted to look like loners, which I’m sure Jihoon wouldn’t mind. He doesn’t hate being alone after all.

“How did your exams go?” I broke the silence.

“Good. I got all A’s. You?” Jihoon was constantly adjusting his suit.

“A wide range. I did well on the subjects I needed anyway.” I shrugged.

“I swear if you have failed Maths after all the trouble I went through tutoring you last year, I will whip your arse!” Jihoon grumbled, but we found ourselves laughing a minute later.

“I’m sorry. What I said was out of line. You were only trying to help. It's not my place to judge you even if you never find love.” I apologised once they had calmed down. I didn’t want to lose you. I love you too much.

“It’s ok. The truth is, Seungcheol, I already found love.” Jihoon smiled.

“What?! Who? Why didn't you tell me?” I demanded. I guessed Jihoon had someone already in mind. It was fine. I deserved that.

“Well you were kind of busy with Jeonghan.” Jihoon pointed out.

“True, but who is it?” I grabbed both of Jihoon’s hands.

“It’s you. It always has been.” Jihoon smiled and after a few seconds, I realised. I paused for a minute, leaving both of us to stare at each other and take each other in, before I closed the distance between us and our lips connected.

I was the one who was unfortunate enough to be Jihoon’s soulmate and I wouldn't have it any other way.

A few minutes later, I spotted Mingyu and Wonwoo trying to sneak off. Jihoon pounced and for the next 10 minutes, I watched Jihoon scold the duo. It was perfect. Jihoon was perfectly broken and I wouldn’t have him any other way.

A couple months later, Jihoon and I moved into a dorm together in Seoul. I managed to convince Jihoon to take the scholarship at the same university as me. It made it easy for me to make sure that Jihoon wasn’t overworking himself and was still eating all his meals, including breakfast, and sleeping at a reasonable hour. It did help that I was able to encourage Jihoon with kisses and hugs.

It was funny that all thirteen of us - Jihoon, Seungcheol, Jisoo, Jeonghan, Mingyu, Wonwoo, Junhui, Minghao, Seungkwan, Hansol, Soonyoung, Seokmin and Chan - eventually ended up in the same university. However, no one could complain, except Chan, who didn’t have a soulmate. He was more complaining that he was the ultimate third wheel though, not that he didn’t have a soulmate. He was asexual anyway.

Also, Jihoon eventually managed to get used to Junhui and he seemed to enjoy Junhui’s quiest company, not as much as my company of course.

“So, Woozi? Does Junhui still creep you out?” I sat on a swing next to Jihoon. I had dragged Jihoon out to get some much needed fresh air, seeing as Jihoon hadn’t seen the sun in over 48 hours.

“No. You wouldn’t believe it, but all along, one of Junhui’s soulmates was that scruffy cat. Same with Minghao.” Jihoon laughed.

“Wait, that cat is the two of them’s second soulmate?” I couldn’t stop myself from laughing alongside Jihoon.

“They’re basically in a threesome with a cat!” Jihoon cackled.

Yes, everything was perfect. Everyone was happy. Jihoon and I loved each other.

“Yah! Seungcheol!” Jihoon yelled, his small feet could be heard padding towards my desk, where I was currently attempting to take a nap.

“What is it, Woozi?” I slowly raised my head from the table, rubbing my eyes.

“Stop using all the toothpaste up!” Jihoon moaned, tossing an empty tube at me.

“But it’s so good…” I whined in response, lifting up my arms to encourage Jihoon to come over, “And it makes my breath smell minty fresh.”

“I’ll give you that, but that doesn’t mean you can deny me the mintiness! I need to get rid of my morning breath and make sure my teeth are clean too!” Jihoon grumbled, but sat on my lap anyway.

“Well, it’s a good thing I like sharing.” I grinned, pulling Jihoon into a kiss. We stayed like that for a few moments, before I started chuckling, “Your morning breath isn’t that bad.”

“Shut up.” Jihoon moved in for a second kiss. This one was shorter and I found myself moaning when it ended, “That’s all you get until you go and buy us some more toothpaste.”

“Fine, but I’ll hold you to that!” I waited for Jihoon to get off of me, before heading towards the door. I slipped on my shoes and headed out to buy toothpaste. Once I was back, I forced Jihoon to pay up.

Everything was as it should be, until our 11 other friends decided to barge into our dorm of course, but I should have remembered to lock the door when I got home.

The End


End file.
